True Bride (page 4)

The next morning the stepmother handed Elise a spoon, saying, "take this spoon and empty the pond in the garden with it, and mind you know what will happen if there is so much as one drop of water in it by this evening." As the stepmother took her leave, the girl’s eyes began to well with tears, for she could plainly see that the spoon had a large hole in the center of it. Try as she might, she could not remove even the tiniest drop of water with the spoon. Still, she tried. She tried and tried until it was late in the afternoon and the pond was still completely full.