obliged to retire to a distance, and when the peasant looked at the
priest, he recognized the man who had been with the miller's wife. He
said to him: 'I set you free from the closet, set me free from the
barrel.' At this same moment up came, with a flock of sheep, the very
shepherd whom the peasant knew had long been wishing to be mayor, so
he cried with all his might: 'No, I will not do it; if the whole world
insists on it, I will not do it!' The shepherd hearing that, came up
to him, and asked: 'What are you about? What is it that you will not
do?' The peasant said: 'They want to make me mayor, if I will but put
myself in the barrel, but I will not do it.' The shepherd said: 'If
nothing more than that is needful in order to be mayor, I would get
into the barrel at once.' The peasant said: 'If you will get in, you
will be mayor.' The shepherd was willing, and got in, and the peasant
shut the top down on him; then he took the shepherd's flock for
himself, and drove it away. The parson went to the crowd, and declared
that the mass had been said. Then they came and rolled the barrel
towards the water. When the barrel began to roll, the shepherd cried:
'I am quite willing to be mayor.' They believed no otherwise than that
it was the peasant who was saying this, and answered: 'That is what we
intend, but first you shall look about you a little down below there,'
and they rolled the barrel down into the water.

After that the peasants went home, and as they were entering the
village, the small peasant also came quietly in, driving a flock of
sheep and looking quite contented. Then the peasants were astonished,
and said: 'Peasant, from whence do you come? Have you come out of the
water?' 'Yes, truly,' replied the peasant, 'I sank deep, deep down,
until at last I got to the bottom; I pushed the bottom out of the
barrel, and crept out, and there were pretty meadows on which a number
of lambs were feeding, and from thence I brought this flock away with
me.' Said the peasants: 'Are there any more there?' 'Oh, yes,' said
he, 'more than I could want.' Then the peasants made up their minds
that they too would fetch some sheep for themselves, a flock apiece,
but the mayor said: 'I come first.' So they went to the water
together, and just then there were some of the small fleecy clouds in
the blue sky, which are called little lambs, and they were reflected
in the water, whereupon the peasants cried: 'We already see the sheep
down below!' The mayor pressed forward and said: 'I will go down
first, and look about me, and if things promise well I'll call you.'
So he jumped in; splash! went the water; it sounded as if he were
calling them, and the whole crowd plunged in after him as one man.
Then the entire village was dead, and the small peasant, as sole heir,
became a rich man.



FREDERICK AND CATHERINE

There was once a man called Frederick: he had a wife whose name was
Catherine, and they had not long been married. One day Frederick said.
'Kate! I am going to work in the fields; when I come back I shall be
hungry so let me have something nice cooked, and a good draught of
ale.' 'Very well,' said she, 'it shall all be ready.' When dinner-time
drew nigh, Catherine took a nice steak, which was all the meat she
had, and put it on the fire to fry. The steak soon began to look
brown, and to crackle in the pan; and Catherine stood by with a fork
and turned it: then she said to herself, 'The steak is almost ready, I
may as well go to the cellar for the ale.' So she left the pan on the
fire and took a large jug and went into the cellar and tapped the ale
cask. The beer ran into the jug and Catherine stood looking on. At
last it popped into her head, 'The dog is not shut up--he may be
running away with the steak; that's well thought of.' So up she ran
from the cellar; and sure enough the rascally cur had got the steak in
his mouth, and was making off with it.

Away ran Catherine, and away ran the dog across the field: but he ran
faster than she, and stuck close to the steak. 'It's all gone, and
"what can't be cured must be endured",' said Catherine. So she turned
round; and as she had run a good way and was tired, she walked home
leisurely to cool herself.

Now all this time the ale was running too, for Catherine had not
turned the cock; and when the jug was full the liquor ran upon the
floor till the cask was empty. When she got to the cellar stairs she
saw what had happened. 'My stars!' said she, 'what shall I do to keep
Frederick from seeing all this slopping about?' So she thought a
while; and at last remembered that there was a sack of fine meal
bought at the last fair, and that if she sprinkled this over the floor
it would suck up the ale nicely. 'What a lucky thing,' said she, 'that
we kept that meal! we have now a good use for it.' So away she went
for it: but she managed to set it down just upon the great jug full of
beer, and upset it; and thus all the ale that had been saved was set
swimming on the floor also. 'Ah! well,' said she, 'when one goes
another may as well follow.' Then she strewed the meal all about the
cellar, and was quite pleased with her cleverness, and said, 'How very
neat and clean it looks!'

At noon Frederick came home. 'Now, wife,' cried he, 'what have you for
dinner?' 'O Frederick!' answered she, 'I was cooking you a steak; but
while I went down to draw the ale, the dog ran away with it; and while
I ran after him, the ale ran out; and when I went to dry up the ale
with the sack of meal that we got at the fair, I upset the jug: but
the cellar is now quite dry, and looks so clean!' 'Kate, Kate,' said
he, 'how could you do all this?' Why did you leave the steak to fry,
and the ale to run, and then spoil all the meal?' 'Why, Frederick,'
said she, 'I did not know I was doing wrong; you should have told me
before.'

The husband thought to himself, 'If my wife manages matters thus, I
must look sharp myself.' Now he had a good deal of gold in the house:


<< previous page | next page >>

Jump to page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69 | 70 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 74 | 75 | 76 | 77 | 78 | 79 | 80 | 81 | 82 | 83 | 84 | 85 | 86 | 87 | 88 | 89 | 90 | 91 | 92 | 93 | 94 |