The Clever Grethel
Once upon a time there was a Cook who wore shoes with red knots, and when she went out with them on she used to figure her feet about here and there, and then say to herself, quite complacently, “Ah, you are still a pretty girl!” And when she came home she drank a glass of wine for joy, and, as the wine made her wish to eat, she used to look out the best she had, and excuse herself by saying, “The Cook ought to know how her cooking tastes.”
One day it happened that the master said to her, “Grethel, this evening a guest is coming, so cook me two fowls.” “I will do it directly, master,” replied Grethel. She soon killed the fowls, plucked, dressed, and spitted them, and, as evening came on, she put them down to the fire to roast. They soon began to brown and warm through, but still the guest was not come, and Grethel said to the master, “If your guest does not come soon I shall have to take the fowls from the fire, but it will be a great shame not to eat them soon, when they are just in the gravy.”
The master agreed, therefore, to run out himself and bring home his guest; and, as soon as he had turned his back, Grethel laid aside the spit, with its two fowls, and thought to herself, “Ah, I have stood so long before the fire, I am quite hot and thirsty; who knows when he will come? Meanwhile I will run down into the cellar and have a draught.”
Grethel ran down the stairs and filled a jug, and, saying “God bless you, Grethel!” took a good pull at the beer, and when that was done she had another draught. Then she went up again, and placed the fowls before the fire, and turned the spit round quite merrily, first spreading some butter over their skins. However, the roasting fowls smelt so well that Grethel thought she had better try how they tasted; and so she dipped her finger into the gravy, and said, “Ah, how good these fowls are! it is a sin and shame that they should not be eaten at once!” She ran to the window, therefore, to see if her master was yet coming with his guest, but there was nobody, and she turned again to the fowls. “Ah, one wing is burnt!” said she, “I had better eat that!” and, cutting it off, she ate it. But then she thought, “Master will see that something is wanting, I had better take the other!” When she had finished the two wings, she went again to see whether her master was coming, but without success. “Who knows,” said she, “whether they will come or not? and perhaps they are stopping where they are. Come, Grethel, be of good courage! the one is begun, have another drink, and then eat it up completely, for when it is all done you will be at rest, and besides, why should the good things be spoiled?” So thinking, Grethel ran once more into the cellar, took a capital drink, and then ate up one fowl with great pleasure. As soon as it was down, and the master still had not returned, Grethel looked at the other fowl, and said, “Where the one is, the other ought to be also; the two belong to one another; what is right for the one is right for the other; I believe if I take another draught it will not hurt me.” So saying, she took a hearty drink, and let the second fowl slip down after the other.
Just as she was in the best of the eating, the master came running up, and called, “Make haste, Grethel! the guest is coming directly!”
“Yes, master,” said she, “it will soon be ready.”
The master went in to see if the table were properly laid, and, taking up the great knife wherewith he was to carve the fowls, he went to sharpen it upon the stones. Meantime came the guest, and knocked politely at the door. Grethel ran to see who it was; and, when she perceived the guest, she held her finger to her mouth to enjoin silence, and said, “Make haste quickly away! if my master discovers you here, you are lost! he certainly did invite you here to supper, but he has it in his mind to cut off your ears; just listen now how he is sharpening his knife!”
The guest listened to the sound, and then hurried down the steps as fast as he could, while Grethel ran screaming to her master, and said to him, “You have invited a fine guest!”
“Eh! what?” said he, “what do you mean?”
“Why,” replied Grethel, “just as I was about to serve them up, your guest has taken the two fowls from off the dish, and bolted away with them!”
“That is fine manners, certainly!” said the master, grieved for his fine fowls, “if he had but left me one at the least, that I might have had something to eat!” Then he called after his guest, who pretended not to hear him; and so he pursued him, knife in hand, calling out, “Only one! only one!” meaning that his guest should leave one fowl behind him; but the latter supposed that his host meant that he would only cut off one ear, and so he ran faster and faster, as if fire were at his heels, that he might reach home safe and sound.
