English Original
On her seventeenth birthday, Betty Stoggs was up with the sun. She sat down and began peeling apples, trying to cut an all-in-one-piece peeling. After thirteen apples and two nicked fingers, she succeeded. She closed her eyes, threw the peel over her right shoulder, and chanted: "Apple tree! Apple tree! Show my true love's name to me!"
Turning around, she found the peel curled into a perfect J on the hearth. Delighted, she decided she must marry a man whose name began with J. She considered the J's she knew and settled on Big Jan, a miner. Being pretty and rosy, she soon wed him.
Life with Jan's mother was tedious, so Betty scowled until Jan built her a cottage of her own on the moor at Towednack. At first, Betty was happy, but soon she grew lonely and the cottage grew dirty. Jan brought her a black kitten, Tabby, for company. Betty was delighted, and for a while, all was well.
But loneliness returned. Betty pouted and declared she needed a baby. "Well, if that's what will please ye," said Jan. Before winter, a son, Wee Jan, was born. Betty loved him but was lax in her care, often leaving him dirty and alone with the cat while she went to town.
One midsummer afternoon, she lingered too long. Returning at dusk, she found the cottage door open, in a shambles, with no sign of Wee Jan or Tabby. A desperate search ensued. At dawn, alone on the moor, Betty heard a faint sound. She found Tabby under a bush, licking a clean, sleeping Wee Jan, who was wrapped in bright chintz and pillowed on herbs.
The neighbors believed fairies, who love chintz, had taken and nearly cleaned the baby to keep him, but the sunrise scared them away, leaving a tiny dirty mark on his foot—a fairy mark. From then on, Betty became a careful, cheerful mother and homemaker. She kept the freckle-like spot as a lucky reminder of all she had to be happy about.
中文翻译
十七岁生日那天，贝蒂·斯托格斯日出即起。她坐下来开始削苹果，试图削出一条完整不断的苹果皮。在削了十三个苹果、划伤两根手指后，她成功了。她闭上眼睛，将苹果皮从右肩抛出，念道：“苹果树！苹果树！告诉我真爱的名字！”
转身一看，苹果皮在壁炉边蜷成了一个完美的 J 字。她很高兴，认定自己必须嫁给一个名字以J开头的男人。她想了想认识的J姓男子，选中了矿工大个子简。贝蒂自己漂亮红润，很快就和他结婚了。
和简的母亲生活在一起很乏味，于是贝蒂整天皱眉，直到简在托德纳克的荒野边为她建了一座属于自己的小屋。起初贝蒂很快乐，但不久她又感到孤独，小屋也变得脏乱。简给她带回一只小黑猫塔比作伴。贝蒂很开心，有一段时间，一切都很好。
但孤独感再次袭来。贝蒂撅着嘴，宣称她需要一个孩子。“好吧，如果这能让你高兴，”简说。冬天之前，儿子小简出生了。贝蒂爱他，但疏于照顾，常常让他脏兮兮的，并把他独自和猫留在家里，自己则去镇上。
一个仲夏的下午，她在镇上逗留得太久了。黄昏时分回到家，她发现小屋门大开，里面一片狼藉，小简和塔比都不见了。一场绝望的搜寻随即展开。黎明时分，独自在荒野上的贝蒂听到一声微弱的声响。她在一丛灌木下找到了塔比，它正在舔舐一个干净、熟睡的小简，孩子裹着鲜艳的印花棉布，头枕着香草。
邻居们相信是喜爱印花布的精灵带走了孩子，并几乎把他洗干净准备留下，但日出吓跑了他们，只在他脚上留下了一个小小的污迹——一个精灵标记。从此，贝蒂变成了一个细心、快乐的母亲和持家者。她把那个像雀斑一样的斑点视为幸运的标记，提醒自己拥有的一切足以让她幸福。