Grimm's Household Tales

There was once a cook named Grethel, who wore shoes with red rosettes. When she walked out in them, she turned this way and that and thought, “You certainly are a pretty girl!” When she came home, she took a drink of wine in the gladness of her heart. Since wine excites a desire to eat, she tasted the best of whatever she was cooking until she was satisfied, and she said, “The cook must know what the food is like.”

One day the master said to her, “Grethel, a guest is coming this evening. Prepare two fowls for me very daintily.” “I will see to it, master,” answered Grethel. She killed two fowls, scalded them, plucked them, put them on the spit, and toward evening set them before the fire to 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 at once, while they are juiciest.” The master said, “I will run and fetch the guest myself.” When the master had turned his back, Grethel laid the spit with the fowls to one side and thought, “Standing so long by the fire 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, put a jug to her lips, said, “God bless it for your use, Grethel,” took a good drink, and then took yet another hearty drink.

Then she went and put the fowls back to the fire, basted them, and turned the spit merrily. But since the roast meat smelled 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 at once!” She ran to the window to see whether the master was coming with his guest, but she saw no one. She 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 finished, she thought, “The other must go too, or else the master will notice 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? Perhaps they are not coming at all and have stopped in somewhere.” Then she said, “Hello, Grethel, enjoy yourself. One fowl has been cut into, so take another drink and eat it up entirely. When it is eaten, you will have some peace. Why should God’s good gifts be spoiled?” 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 had been swallowed down and her master still did not come, Grethel looked at the other and said, “Where one is, the other should be as well. The two go together. What is right for the one is right for the other. I think that if I were to take another drink, it would do me no harm.” So she took another hearty drink and let the second chicken rejoin the first.

While she was in the very middle of her eating, her master came and cried, “Hurry up, Grethel! The guest is coming right behind me!” “Yes, sir, I will serve up soon,” answered Grethel. Meanwhile the master looked to see that the table was properly laid, took the great knife with which he was going to carve the chickens, and sharpened it on the steps. Soon the guest came and knocked politely and courteously at the house door. Grethel ran and looked to see who was there. 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 to 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,” she said, “he has taken the chickens off the dish, the ones I was just going to serve up, and has run away with them!” “That’s a nice trick!” said her master, and he lamented the fine chickens. “If he had only 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, was sure that he was to give up one of his ears, and he ran as if fire were burning under him, in order to take them both home with him.