One day, the sisters meet a strange girl, who tells them that she has a tiny man and woman in a compartment on her peardrum (a musical instrument described as "like a guitar in shape; it had three strings, but only two pegs by which to tune them.
In Schwartz's version, the sisters (renamed Delores and Sandra) attempt to obtain a drum that contains a dancing mechanical man and woman from a gypsy girl.
In his 1997 collection More Short & Shivery, Robert D. San Souci rewrote the tale, retaining the basic plot structure but revising the ending.
The two sisters (Blue-Eyes and the renamed Red-Skirts) misbehave to come into possession of the box, only for the new mother with the glass eyes and wooden tail to be revealed as the beggar woman, who was in disguise.
The story ends sometime later with two brothers approaching the woman in the market, who opens the box to reveal the dancing figures of two girls, one with blue eyes and one with red skirts.
The short film was written and directed by Brian Lange and starred Abi McKenzie and Shelby Howe as the sisters, Dana DeLorenzo as the homeless woman, and Danielle Brothers as the girls' mother.