Grimm's Household Tales

When Adam and Eve were driven out of Paradise, they were compelled to build a house for themselves on barren ground and to eat their bread in the sweat of their brows. Adam dug up the land, and Eve spun. Every year Eve brought a child into the world, but the children were unlike each other, some pretty and some ugly. After a considerable time had gone by, God sent an angel to them to announce that he was coming to inspect their household. Eve, delighted that the Lord should be so gracious, cleaned her house diligently, decked it with flowers, and scattered reeds on the floor. Then she brought in her children, but only the beautiful ones. She washed and bathed them, combed their hair, put clean clothes on them, and cautioned them to conduct themselves decorously and modestly in the presence of the Lord. They were to bow down before him politely, hold out their hands, and answer his questions modestly and sensibly. The ugly children, however, were not to let themselves be seen. One hid himself beneath the hay, another under the roof, a third in the straw, the fourth in the stove, the fifth in the cellar, the sixth under a tub, the seventh beneath the wine cask, the eighth under an old fur cloak, the ninth and tenth beneath the cloth out of which she always made their clothes, and the eleventh and twelfth under the leather out of which she cut their shoes. She had scarcely finished getting ready when there was a knock at the door of the house. Adam looked through a crack and saw that it was the Lord. Adam opened the door respectfully, and the Heavenly Father entered. There, in a row, stood the pretty children; they bowed before him, held out their hands, and knelt down. The Lord began to bless them. He laid his hands on the first and said, “You shall be a powerful king,” and to the second, “You a prince,” to the third, “You a count,” to the fourth, “You a knight,” to the fifth, “You a nobleman,” to the sixth, “You a burgher,” to the seventh, “You a merchant,” to the eighth, “You a learned man.” He also bestowed on them all his richest blessings. When Eve saw that the Lord was so mild and gracious, she thought, “I will bring my ugly children here too. Perhaps he will bestow his blessing on them as well.” So she ran and brought them out of the hay, the straw, the stove, and wherever else she had hidden them. Then came the whole coarse, dirty, shabby, sooty band. The Lord smiled, looked at them all, and said, “I will bless these too.” He laid his hands on the first and said to him, “You shall be a peasant,” to the second, “You a fisherman,” to the third, “You a smith,” to the fourth, “You a tanner,” to the fifth, “You a weaver,” to the sixth, “You a shoemaker,” to the seventh, “You a tailor,” to the eighth, “You a potter,” to the ninth, “You a wagoner,” to the tenth, “You a sailor,” to the eleventh, “You an errand boy,” to the twelfth, “You a scullion all the days of your life.”

When Eve had heard all this, she said, “Lord, how unequally you divide your gifts! After all, they are all my children, whom I have brought into the world; your favors should be given to all alike.” But God answered, “Eve, you do not understand. It is right and necessary that the entire world should be supplied from your children. If they were all princes and lords, who would grow grain, thresh it, and grind and bake it? Who would be blacksmiths, weavers, carpenters, masons, laborers, tailors, and seamstresses? Each shall have his own place, so that one shall support another, and all shall be fed like the limbs of one body.” Then Eve answered, “Ah, Lord, forgive me. I was too quick in speaking to you. Let your divine will be done with my children.”