Kabanata Kabanata 72 · Clever Grethel

. Clever Grethel

There was once a cook named Grethel, who wore shoes with red rosettes,

and when she walked out with them on, she turned herself this way and

that, and thought, “You certainly are a pretty girl!” And when she came

home she drank, in her gladness of heart, a draught of wine, and as

wine excites a desire to eat, she tasted the best of whatever she was

cooking until she was satisfied, and said, “The cook must know what the

food is like.”

It came to pass that the master one day said to her, “Grethel, there is

a guest coming this evening; prepare me two fowls very daintily.” “I

will see to it, master,” answered Grethel. She killed two fowls,

scalded them, plucked them, put them on the spit, and towards evening

set them before the fire, that they might roast. The fowls began to

turn brown, and were nearly ready, but the guest had not yet arrived.

Then Grethel called out to her master, “If the guest does not come, I

must take the fowls away from the fire, but it will be a sin and a

shame if they are not eaten directly, when they are juiciest.” The

master said, “I will run myself, and fetch the guest.” When the master

had turned his back, Grethel laid the spit with the fowls on one side,

and thought, “Standing so long by the fire there, makes one hot and

thirsty; who knows when they will come? Meanwhile, I will run into the

cellar, and take a drink.” She ran down, set a jug, said, “God bless it

to thy use, Grethel,” and took a good drink, and took yet another

hearty draught.

Then she went and put the fowls down again to the fire, basted them,

and drove the spit merrily round. But as the roast meat smelt so good,

Grethel thought, “Something might be wrong, it ought to be tasted!” She

touched it with her finger, and said, “Ah! how good fowls are! It

certainly is a sin and a shame that they are not eaten directly!” She

ran to the window, to see if the master was not coming with his guest,

but she saw no one, and went back to the fowls and thought, “One of the

wings is burning! I had better take it off and eat it.” So she cut it

off, ate it, and enjoyed it, and when she had done, she thought, “the

other must go down too, or else master will observe that something is

missing.” When the two wings were eaten, she went and looked for her

master, and did not see him. It suddenly occurred to her, “Who knows?

They are perhaps not coming at all, and have turned in somewhere.” Then

she said, “Hallo, Grethel, enjoy yourself, one fowl has been cut into,

take another drink, and eat it up entirely; when it is eaten you will

have some peace, why should God’s good gifts be spoilt?” So she ran

into the cellar again, took an enormous drink and ate up the one

chicken in great glee. When one of the chickens was swallowed down, and

still her master did not come, Grethel looked at the other and said,

“Where one is, the other should be likewise, the two go together;

what’s right for the one is right for the other; I think if I were to

take another draught it would do me no harm.” So she took another

hearty drink, and let the second chicken rejoin the first.

While she was just in the best of the eating, her master came and

cried, hurry up, “Haste thee, Grethel, the guest is coming directly

after me!” “Yes, sir, I will soon serve up,” answered Grethel. Meantime

the master looked to see that the table was properly laid, and took the

great knife, wherewith he was going to carve the chickens, and

sharpened it on the steps. Presently the guest came, and knocked

politely and courteously at the house-door. Grethel ran, and looked to

see who was there, and when she saw the guest, she put her finger to

her lips and said, “Hush! hush! get away as quickly as you can, if my

master catches you it will be the worse for you; he certainly did ask

you to supper, but his intention is to cut off your two ears. Just

listen how he is sharpening the knife for it!” The guest heard the

sharpening, and hurried down the steps again as fast as he could.

Grethel was not idle; she ran screaming to her master, and cried, “You

have invited a fine guest!” “Eh, why, Grethel? What do you mean by

that?” “Yes,” said she, “he has taken the chickens which I was just

going to serve up, off the dish, and has run away with them!” “That’s a

nice trick!” said her master, and lamented the fine chickens. “If he

had but left me one, so that something remained for me to eat.” He

called to him to stop, but the guest pretended not to hear. Then he ran

after him with the knife still in his hand, crying, “Just one, just

one,” meaning that the guest should leave him just one chicken, and not

take both. The guest, however, thought no otherwise than that he was to

give up one of his ears, and ran as if fire were burning under him, in

order to take them both home with him.