so he said to Catherine, 'What pretty yellow buttons these are! I
shall put them into a box and bury them in the garden; but take care
that you never go near or meddle with them.' 'No, Frederick,' said
she, 'that I never will.' As soon as he was gone, there came by some
pedlars with earthenware plates and dishes, and they asked her whether
she would buy. 'Oh dear me, I should like to buy very much, but I have
no money: if you had any use for yellow buttons, I might deal with
you.' 'Yellow buttons!' said they: 'let us have a look at them.' 'Go
into the garden and dig where I tell you, and you will find the yellow
buttons: I dare not go myself.' So the rogues went: and when they
found what these yellow buttons were, they took them all away, and
left her plenty of plates and dishes. Then she set them all about the
house for a show: and when Frederick came back, he cried out, 'Kate,
what have you been doing?' 'See,' said she, 'I have bought all these
with your yellow buttons: but I did not touch them myself; the pedlars
went themselves and dug them up.' 'Wife, wife,' said Frederick, 'what
a pretty piece of work you have made! those yellow buttons were all my
money: how came you to do such a thing?' 'Why,' answered she, 'I did
not know there was any harm in it; you should have told me.'

Catherine stood musing for a while, and at last said to her husband,
'Hark ye, Frederick, we will soon get the gold back: let us run after
the thieves.' 'Well, we will try,' answered he; 'but take some butter
and cheese with you, that we may have something to eat by the way.'
'Very well,' said she; and they set out: and as Frederick walked the
fastest, he left his wife some way behind. 'It does not matter,'
thought she: 'when we turn back, I shall be so much nearer home than
he.'

Presently she came to the top of a hill, down the side of which there
was a road so narrow that the cart wheels always chafed the trees on
each side as they passed. 'Ah, see now,' said she, 'how they have
bruised and wounded those poor trees; they will never get well.' So
she took pity on them, and made use of the butter to grease them all,
so that the wheels might not hurt them so much. While she was doing
this kind office one of her cheeses fell out of the basket, and rolled
down the hill. Catherine looked, but could not see where it had gone;
so she said, 'Well, I suppose the other will go the same way and find
you; he has younger legs than I have.' Then she rolled the other
cheese after it; and away it went, nobody knows where, down the hill.
But she said she supposed that they knew the road, and would follow
her, and she could not stay there all day waiting for them.

At last she overtook Frederick, who desired her to give him something
to eat. Then she gave him the dry bread. 'Where are the butter and
cheese?' said he. 'Oh!' answered she, 'I used the butter to grease
those poor trees that the wheels chafed so: and one of the cheeses ran
away so I sent the other after it to find it, and I suppose they are
both on the road together somewhere.' 'What a goose you are to do such
silly things!' said the husband. 'How can you say so?' said she; 'I am
sure you never told me not.'

They ate the dry bread together; and Frederick said, 'Kate, I hope you
locked the door safe when you came away.' 'No,' answered she, 'you did
not tell me.' 'Then go home, and do it now before we go any farther,'
said Frederick, 'and bring with you something to eat.'

Catherine did as he told her, and thought to herself by the way,
'Frederick wants something to eat; but I don't think he is very fond
of butter and cheese: I'll bring him a bag of fine nuts, and the
vinegar, for I have often seen him take some.'

When she reached home, she bolted the back door, but the front door
she took off the hinges, and said, 'Frederick told me to lock the
door, but surely it can nowhere be so safe if I take it with me.' So
she took her time by the way; and when she overtook her husband she
cried out, 'There, Frederick, there is the door itself, you may watch
it as carefully as you please.' 'Alas! alas!' said he, 'what a clever
wife I have! I sent you to make the house fast, and you take the door
away, so that everybody may go in and out as they please--however, as
you have brought the door, you shall carry it about with you for your
pains.' 'Very well,' answered she, 'I'll carry the door; but I'll not
carry the nuts and vinegar bottle also--that would be too much of a
load; so if you please, I'll fasten them to the door.'

Frederick of course made no objection to that plan, and they set off
into the wood to look for the thieves; but they could not find them:
and when it grew dark, they climbed up into a tree to spend the night
there. Scarcely were they up, than who should come by but the very
rogues they were looking for. They were in truth great rascals, and
belonged to that class of people who find things before they are lost;
they were tired; so they sat down and made a fire under the very tree
where Frederick and Catherine were. Frederick slipped down on the
other side, and picked up some stones. Then he climbed up again, and
tried to hit the thieves on the head with them: but they only said,
'It must be near morning, for the wind shakes the fir-apples down.'

Catherine, who had the door on her shoulder, began to be very tired;
but she thought it was the nuts upon it that were so heavy: so she
said softly, 'Frederick, I must let the nuts go.' 'No,' answered he,
'not now, they will discover us.' 'I can't help that: they must go.'
'Well, then, make haste and throw them down, if you will.' Then away
rattled the nuts down among the boughs and one of the thieves cried,
'Bless me, it is hailing.'

A little while after, Catherine thought the door was still very heavy:
so she whispered to Frederick, 'I must throw the vinegar down.' 'Pray
don't,' answered he, 'it will discover us.' 'I can't help that,' said
she, 'go it must.' So she poured all the vinegar down; and the thieves
said, 'What a heavy dew there is!'


<< 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 |