Printed versions date back to the 1840s, but the story is thought to be much older.
The earliest version takes place in Dartmoor with three pixies and a fox before its best known version appears in English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs in 1890, with Jacobs crediting James Halliwell-Phillipps as the source.
This is an original version that registers as a type B124 folktale in the Thompson Motif Index.
Original Color and B&W Illustrations by L. Leslie Brooke.