the food is like.'



It came to pass that the master one day said to her: 'Gretel, there is a

guest coming this evening; prepare me two fowls very daintily.' 'I will

see to it, master,' answered Gretel. 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 Gretel 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

the moment they are at their juiciest.' The master said: 'I will run

myself, and fetch the guest.' When the master had turned his back,

Gretel laid the spit with the fowls on one side, and thought: 'Standing

so long by the fire there, makes one sweat 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 for you, Gretel,'

and took a good drink, and thought that wine should flow on, and should

not be interrupted, 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,

Gretel 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 at the right

time!' 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: 'Well, Gretel, 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, Gretel looked at the other and said:

'What 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 follow the first.



While she was making the most of it, her master came and cried: 'Hurry

up, Gretel, the guest is coming directly after me!' 'Yes, sir, I will

soon serve up,' answered Gretel. Meantime the master looked to see what

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.

Gretel 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! go 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. Gretel was not idle; she ran screaming to her master, and cried:

'You have invited a fine guest!' 'Why, Gretel? 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 with him.