Tom Tit Tot

Long ago in Suffolk, a woman baked five pies, but she left them in the oven so long that they came out as hard as stones. “Put them on the shelf,” she told her daughter, “and they will soften up again.” But the girl was hungry, so she nibbled one, and then another, until all five pies were gone.

That evening, the mother sat at her spinning wheel by the door and sang a little song. “My daughter ate five, five pies today!” Just then, the king came riding down the road and asked what she was singing. The mother did not want the king to know how greedy her daughter was, so she sang, “My daughter spun five, five skeins of thread today!” “Five skeins in one day?” said the king. “I have never heard of such a clever girl, and I will marry her!”

So the girl married the king, and for eleven months she had all the food she liked. But in the twelfth month, the king took her to a little room with a spinning wheel. “Now you must spin five skeins every day,” he said, “or you will have to leave the palace.” The girl had never spun a thread in her life, and she sat down and cried.

Then she heard a tap at the window, and in hopped a little black creature with a long, twirly tail. “I will spin your thread for you,” it said with a grin. “Each night, you may guess my name three times.” “If you have not guessed it by the end of the month, you must come away and spin for me forever.”

Every morning, the creature took her flax, and every evening, it brought back five skeins of thread. Every night, the girl guessed, “Is it Bill? Is it Ned? Is it Mark?” “No, it is not!” it laughed, and away it flew.

On the second-to-last night, the king came home from a ride in the woods with a funny story. “In the woods, I saw a little black creature spinning and singing,” he said. “It sang, ‘Nimmy nimmy not, my name’s Tom Tit Tot!’” The girl smiled, but she did not say a word.

The next night, the creature came for its answer, twirling its tail faster than ever. “Is it Nicholas?” asked the girl. “No!” “Is it Barnaby?” “No!” it cried, and it held out its hands. Then the girl pointed at it and said, “Nimmy nimmy not, your name’s Tom Tit Tot!” The creature gave an angry squeak, and it flew off into the dark, and she never saw it again. As for the girl, she never had to spin another thread, and she and the king lived happily ever after.