Grimm's Household Tales

There was once a very old man whose eyes had become dim, whose ears were dull of hearing, and whose knees trembled. When he sat at the table, he could hardly hold the spoon, and he spilled the broth on the tablecloth or let it run out of his mouth. His son and his son’s wife were disgusted by this, so the old grandfather finally had to sit in the corner behind the stove. They gave him his food in an earthenware bowl, and not even enough of it. He used to look toward the table with his eyes full of tears. Once, too, his trembling hands could not hold the bowl, and it fell to the ground and broke. The young wife scolded him, but he said nothing and only sighed. Then they bought him a wooden bowl for a few halfpence, and he had to eat out of it.

They were sitting like this one day when the little grandson, who was four years old, began to gather some bits of wood on the ground. “What are you doing there?” asked the father. “I am making a little trough,” answered the child, “for Father and Mother to eat out of when I am big.”

The man and his wife looked at each other for a while and soon began to cry. Then they took the old grandfather to the table. From then on, they always let him eat with them, and they said nothing if he did spill a little of anything.