One day a woodman was told by his master to cut down some trees that stood near a very deep river. The woodman, however, had lost his hatchet, so he went and borrowed one from a neighbour. And so he walked along the river side until he came to the trees which his master had told him to cut down. So he began to chop at the first tree, but before he had struck many blows the head of the hatchet flew off and fell into the deep water, so that the poor woodman could not get it out again. The woodman was very much troubled about this, because the hatchet was not his own, and as he stood fretting over his loss by the river side a little fairy man appeared on the top of the water, and walked up to him, and asked him what he was fretting about. The woodman said, " I’ve lost my neighbour's hatchet head in this water,  

and I can't get it out." 

The fairy said, "Where did it fall in?" and the woodman showed him the place.  

"Give me the shaft," said the fairy.  

So the woodman gave him the shaft, and he threw it into the water in the place where the head had fallen in. 

"Keep your eyes fixed on the spot where the shaft fell in," said the fairy, " and the hatchet will rise up out of the water with the head on, just as it was when you borrowed it."  

So the woodman did as he was told and kept his eyes fixed on the spot, when shortly he heard a rumbling noise in the water, and after the rumbling had ceased the hatchet appeared in the very place where the fairy had thrown the shaft in. Then the woodman took the hatchet out of the water, but on looking up to thank the little fairy he found that he had gone.