Household Stories by the Brothers Grimm by Jacob Grimm (i can read book club .txt) 📖
- Author: Jacob Grimm
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"What are you crying for?" said the maid.
"Oh dear me," answered she, "how can I help crying? if I marry Hans, and we have a child, and it grows big, and we send it here to draw beer, perhaps the pickaxe may fall on its head and kill it."
"Our Else is clever indeed!" said the maid, and directly sat down to bewail the anticipated misfortune. After a while, when the people upstairs found that the maid did not return, and they were becoming more and more thirsty, the master said to the boy,
"You go down into the cellar, and see what Else and the maid are doing."
The boy did so, and there he found both Clever Else and the maid sitting crying together. Then he asked what was the matter.
"Oh dear me," said Else, "how can we help crying? if I marry Hans, and we have a child, and it grows big, and we send it here to draw beer, the pickaxe might fall on its head and kill it."
"Our Else is clever indeed!" said the boy, and sitting down beside her, he began howling with a good will. Upstairs they were all waiting for him to come back, but as he did not come, the master said to the mistress,
"You go down to the cellar and see what Else is doing."
So the mistress went down and found all three in great lamentations, and when she asked the cause, then Else told her how the future possible child might be killed as soon as it was big enough to be sent to draw beer, by the pickaxe falling on it. Then the mother at once exclaimed,
"Our Else is clever indeed!" and, sitting down, she wept with the rest.
Upstairs the husband waited a little while, but as his wife did not return, and as his thirst constantly increased, he said,
"I must go down to the cellar myself, and see what has become of Else." And when he came into the cellar, and found them all sitting and weeping together, he was told that it was all owing to the child that Else might possibly have, and the possibility of its being killed by the pickaxe so happening to fall just at the time the child might be sitting underneath it drawing beer; and when he heard all this, he cried,
"How clever is our Else!" and sitting down, he joined his tears to theirs.
The intended bridegroom stayed upstairs by himself a long time, but as nobody came back to him, he thought he would go himself and see what they were all about. And there he found all five lamenting and crying most pitifully, each one louder than the other.
"What misfortune has happened?" cried he.
"O my dear Hans," said Else, "if we marry and have a child, and it grows big, and we send it down here to draw beer, perhaps that pickaxe which has been left sticking up there might fall down on the child's head and kill it; and how can we help crying at that!"
"Now," said Hans, "I cannot think that greater sense than that could be wanted in my household; so as you are so clever, Else, I will have you for my wife," and taking her by the hand he led her upstairs, and they had the wedding at once.
A little while after they were married, Hans said to his wife,
"I am going out to work, in order to get money; you go into the field and cut the corn, so that we may have bread."
"Very well, I will do so, dear Hans," said she. And after Hans was gone she cooked herself some nice stew, and took it with her into the field. And when she got there, she said to herself,
"Now, what shall I do? shall I reap first, or eat first? All right, I will eat first." Then she ate her fill of stew, and when she could eat no more, she said to herself,
"Now, what shall I do? shall I reap first, or sleep first? All right, I will sleep first." Then she lay down in the corn and went to sleep. And Hans got home, and waited there a long while, and Else did not come, so he said to himself,
"My clever Else is so industrious that she never thinks of coming home and eating."
But when evening drew near and still she did not come, Hans set out to see how much corn she had cut; but she had cut no corn at all, but there she was lying in it asleep. Then Hans made haste home, and fetched a bird-net with little bells and threw it over her; and still she went on sleeping. And he ran home again and locked himself in, and sat him down on his bench to work. At last, when it was beginning to grow dark, Clever Else woke, and when she got up and shook herself, the bells jingled at each movement that she made. Then she grew frightened, and began to doubt whether she were really Clever Else or not, and said to herself,
"Am I, or am I not?" And, not knowing what answer to make, she stood for a long while considering; at last she thought,
"I will go home to Hans and ask him if I am I or not; he is sure to know."
So she ran up to the door of her house, but it was locked; then she knocked at the window, and cried,
"Hans, is Else within?"
"Yes," answered Hans, "she is in."
Then she was in a greater fright than ever, and crying,
"Oh dear, then I am not I," she went to inquire at another door, but the people hearing the jingling of the bells would not open to her, and she could get in nowhere. So she ran away beyond the village, and since then no one has seen her.
There was once a tailor who had three sons and one goat. And the goat, as she nourished them all with her milk, was obliged to have good food, and so she was led every day down to the willows by the water-side; and this business the sons did in turn. One day the eldest took the goat to the churchyard, where the best sprouts are, that she might eat her fill, and gambol about.
In the evening, when it was time to go home, he said,
"Well, goat, have you had enough?"
The goat answered,
I cannot pull
Another blade of grass—ba! baa!"
"Then come home," said the youth, and fastened a string to her, led her to her stall, and fastened her up.
"Now," said the old tailor, "has the goat had her proper food?"
"Oh," answered the son, "she is so full, she no more can pull."
But the father, wishing to see for himself, went out to the stall, stroked his dear goat, and said,
"My dear goat, are you full?" And the goat answered,
There was nothing to pull,
Though I looked all about me—ba! baa!"
"What is this that I hear?" cried the tailor, and he ran and called out to the youth,
"O you liar, to say that the goat was full, and she has been hungry all the time!" And in his wrath he took up his yard-measure and drove his son out of the house with many blows.
The next day came the turn of the second son, and he found a fine place in the garden hedge, where there were good green sprouts, and the goat ate them all up. In the evening, when he came to lead her home, he said,
"Well, goat, have you had enough?" And the goat answered,
I could not pull
Another blade of grass—ba! baa!"
"Then come home," said the youth, and led her home, and tied her up.
"Now," said the old tailor, "has the goat had her proper food?"
"Oh," answered the son, "she is so full, she no more can pull."
The tailor, not feeling satisfied, went out to the stall, and said,
"My dear goat, are you really full?" And the goat answered,
There was nothing to pull,
Though I looked all about me—ba! baa!"
"The good-for-nothing rascal," cried the tailor, "to let the dear creature go fasting!" and, running back, he chased the youth with his yard-wand out of the house.
Then came the turn of the third son, who, meaning to make all sure, found some shrubs with the finest sprouts possible, and left the goat to devour them. In the evening, when he came to lead her home, he said,
"Well, goat, are you full?" And the goat answered,
I could not pull
Another blade of grass—ba! baa!"
"Then come home," said the youth; and he took her to her stall, and fastened her up.
"Now," said the old tailor, "has the goat had her proper food?"
"Oh," answered the son, "she is so full, she no more can pull."
But the tailor, not trusting his word, went to the goat and said,
"My dear goat, are you really full?" The malicious animal answered,
There was nothing to pull,
Though I looked all about me—ba! baa!"
"Oh, the wretches!" cried the tailor. "The one as good-for-nothing and careless as the other. I will no longer have such fools about me;" and rushing back, in his wrath he laid about him with his yard-wand, and belaboured his son's back so unmercifully that he ran away out of the house.
So the old tailor was left alone with the goat. The next day he went out to the stall, and let out the goat, saying,
"Come, my dear creature, I will take you myself to the willows."
So he led her by the string, and brought her to the green hedges and pastures where there was plenty of food to her taste, and saying to her,
"Now, for once, you can eat to your heart's content," he left her there till the evening. Then he returned, and said,
"Well, goat, are you full?"
She answered,
I could not pull,
Another blade of grass—ba! baa!"
"Then come home," said the tailor, and leading her to her stall, he fastened her up.
Before he left her he turned once more, saying,
"Now then, for once you are full." But the goat actually cried,
There was nothing to pull,
Though I looked all about me—ba! baa!"
When the tailor heard that he marvelled, and saw at once that his three sons had been sent away without reason.
"Wait a minute," cried he, "you ungrateful creature! It is not enough merely to drive you away—I will teach you to show your face again among honourable tailors."
So in haste he went and fetched his razor, and seizing the goat he shaved her head as smooth as the palm of his hand. And as the yard-measure was too honourable a weapon, he took the whip and fetched her such a crack that with many a jump and spring she ran away.
The tailor felt very sad as he sat alone in his house, and would willingly have had his sons back again, but no one knew where they had gone.
The eldest son, when he was driven from home, apprenticed himself to a joiner, and he applied himself diligently to his trade, and when the time came for him to travel his master gave him a little table, nothing much to look at, and made of common wood; but it had one great quality. When any one set it down and said, "Table, be covered!" all at
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