The Nix of the Mill-Pond

A miller became poor as custom no longer favored the watermill. A nixie appeared to him with the boon of returning him to a man of means if he yielded to her in troth, that which had just been birthed within the bounds of his house and home.

Thinking it a trifle, but a kitten or a puppy, he trothed. In truth, he returned home to find his wife cradling a newborn in comfort. The miller's wife had just birthed their new son through a hard labor. Bound in troth, blessed with a newborn son, he never let the boy go near the millpond lest the trixy nixie settle account, leaving him with nix and naught bar the means for which he was bound...