![]() ![]() Although the Miller claims that he will very generously give Hans his wheelbarrow, he admits that the wheelbarrow is extremely damaged, and the reader never actually sees this wheelbarrow pass into Hans’s hands. When spring comes, the Miller visits Hans again and begins to exploit Hans in various ways. When winter descends, the Miller does not visit Hans, choosing to sit in the comfort of his home with his wife and son while Hans suffers greatly and sells various personal possessions for bread. At the beginning of the story, the reader learns that the Miller claims to be Hans’s devoted friend, and continually visits and takes flowers from Hans’s garden. ![]() The interior story, told by the Linnet, depicts the relationship between a poor, innocent peasant named Hans and a rich tradesman named the Miller. Thus, the Linnet decides to tell a story on the subject of friendship. ![]() The Linnet asks what the Water-rat would do for his friends in return, but the Water-rat doesn’t understand what the Linnet is talking about. The Water-rat declares of knowing “nothing in the world that is either nobler or rarer than a devoted friendship.” When asked what this kind of friendship consists of, the Water-rat explains that it involves his friends being wholeheartedly devoted to him. In the frame story, a Linnet, a Duck, and a Water-rat gather around a pond. “The Devoted Friend” is a fairytale that operates as a story within a story. ![]()
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