The Devoted Friend

One day, an old Water-rat comes out of his hole and sees a Duck teaching her ducklings how to stand on their heads in water. “You will never be in the best society unless you can stand on your heads,” she calls out to her ducklings, who flatly ignore her. The Water-rat and the Duck begin to talk, and the former declares his esteem for “devoted friendship.” Overhearing their conversations, a Linnet asks the Water-rat what he thinks devoted friendship consists of. The Water-rat haughtily replies: “What a silly question! […] I should expect my devoted friend to be devoted to me, of course!”

The Linnet asks the Water-rat what he would do for his so-called devoted friend in return. The Water-rat claims to not understand the question, so the Linnet decides to tell the Water-rat a story about friendship. The Water-rat asks eagerly if the story is about him, to which the Linnet replies, “It is applicable to you.”

The Linnet begins his tale by introducing Hans, a poor, kindly peasant who lives in a tiny cottage with a beautiful garden. Hans works in his garden every day, and his flowers are known for their exceptional beauty. Hans’s “most devoted friend” is a rich Miller, named big Hugh. The Miller regularly walks by Hans’s cottage and takes flowers from the garden, declaring that “Real friends should have everything in common.” Hans simply smiles and agrees. The neighbors think it’s odd that the Miller, despite his wealth, never gives Hans anything in return. Hans never notices this, though, and instead delights in the wise and beautiful things the Miller says “about the unselfishness of true friendship.”

Winter comes. Since he has no flowers to sell at the market, Hans suffers from cold and hunger. The Miller never visits Hans and instead sits in his warm home with his wife and son, enjoying ample food and drink. The Miller claims to his family that there is no use visiting Hans, as “when people are in trouble they should be left alone and not be bothered by visitors.” He plans to see Hans in the spring, when Hans will once again have flowers to give to the Miller. The Miller’s wife lavishes praise on her husband, telling him that he is “certainly very thoughtful about others,” and that it’s “quite a treat” to listen to all the wise things he has to say. When the Miller’s son asks after Hans and offers to share his own food with the peasant, the Miller scolds him, saying that such a gesture would “spoil” Hans’s good nature.

“How well you talk!” the Miller’s wife declares. The Miller affirms that talking well is much harder and “finer” than “acting well,” which many people know how to do. The Water-rat interjects, asking the Linnet if that is the end of the story. When the Linnet says that was just the beginning, the Water-rat scoffs that it is all the rage nowadays to start a story with the end, move on to the beginning, and end with the middle—he knows because he heard a very refined, spectacled man say so the other day by the pond. Nevertheless, the Water-rat encourages the Linnet to continue the story. The Water-rat likes the Miller an awful lot because he, too, has “all kinds of beautiful sentiments” like the Miller does.

Spring comes, and the Miller goes to visit Hans. When Hans admits that he thought the Miller had forgotten him, the Miller denies this vehemently and lectures Hans about how “friendship never forgets.” Hans tells the Miller he had to sell many possessions, including a wheelbarrow, in order to have money for food during the wintertime. He now has to buy his belongings back by selling flowers. The Miller offers Hans his broken wheelbarrow; even though it is in very bad shape, the Miller declares that he is being extremely generous in giving it to Hans, as “generosity is the essence of friendship.” Hans is grateful and exclaims that he has one spare plank of wood that he could use to repair this wheelbarrow. The Miller instead takes the plank of wood to mend his own barn-roof, as well as a large basket of flowers from Hans’s garden.

The next day, the Miller visits Hans’s cottage and asks Hans to take a sack of flour to the market for him. When Hans responds regretfully that he is too busy to help, the Miller accuses him of being “unfriendly,” especially as the Miller is to give him a wheelbarrow. Hans is horrified by this accusation and immediately takes the sack of flour to the market. The trip is long and difficult, but he manages to sell the flour for a good price and returns home exhausted.

The following day, the Miller visits Hans again early in the morning. When he sees Hans sleeping, he accuses him of being lazy and asks him to mend his barn-roof. Hans agrees, afraid that he might again come across as “unfriendly” if he refuses. When Hans finishes the job, the Miller declares happily, “Ah! […] there is no work so delightful as the work one does for others.” The next day, the Miller has Hans drive his sheep in to the mountain. The Miller continues to assign Hans chores, preventing Hans from working in his garden. Hans remains eager to please the Miller.

One night, during a storm, the Miller visits Hans and tells him to fetch the doctor, as the Miller’s son hurt himself falling from a ladder. Hans asks if he can borrow the Miller’s lantern to guide the way in the darkness, but the Miller refuses, citing that the lantern is new. Hans sets off in the dark and successfully reaches the doctor. Unfortunately, Hans gets lost on the moor on the way back, as he has no light to guide him. He falls into a deep hole and drowns. His body is found the next day by some passing goatherds.

After Hans’s body is brought back the village, the villagers hold a funeral. As the chief mourner, the Miller laments that he has no one to give his broken wheelbarrow now that Hans is dead, and that he wouldn’t get a cent for it if he tried to sell it. Declaring that he will never “give away anything again,” the Miller exclaims that “One certainly suffers for being generous!”

After a pause, the Water-rat asks what became of the Miller, and the Linnet responds that the Water-rat did not understand the moral of the story. The Water-rat is horrified the story had a moral at all and dives back into his hole. A few minutes later, the Linnet tells the Duck that the Water-rat ran off because he told him a story with a moral. The Duck is understanding and affirms that telling a story with a moral “is always a very dangerous thing to do.” The narrator has the final word, adding, “And I quite agree with her.”