格林童话选 英文版 Grimms' Fairy Tales
格林兄弟 Brüder Grimm
CLEVER GRETEL
There was once a cook named Gretel, who wore shoes with red heels, andwhen she walked out with them on, she turned herself this way andthat, was quite happy and thought: 'You certainly are a pretty girl!'And when she came home she drank, in her gladness of heart, a draughtof wine, and as wine excites a desire to eat, she tasted the best ofwhatever she was cooking until she was satisfied, and said: 'The cookmust know what the food is like.'
It came to pass that the master one day said to her: 'Gretel, there isa guest coming this evening; prepare me two fowls very daintily.' 'Iwill see to it, master,' answered Gretel. She killed two fowls,scalded them, plucked them, put them on the spit, and towards eveningset them before the fire, that they might roast. The fowls began toturn 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, Imust take the fowls away from the fire, but it will be a sin and ashame if they are not eaten the moment they are at their juiciest.'The master said: 'I will run myself, and fetch the guest.' When themaster had turned his back, Gretel laid the spit with the fowls on oneside, and thought: 'Standing so long by the fire there, makes onesweat and thirsty; who knows when they will come? Meanwhile, I willrun 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 thoughtthat wine should flow on, and should not be interrupted, and took yetanother 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!' Shetouched it with her finger, and said: 'Ah! how good fowls are! Itcertainly is a sin and a shame that they are not eaten at the righttime!' She ran to the window, to see if the master was not coming withhis 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.' Soshe cut it off, ate it, and enjoyed it, and when she had done, shethought: 'The other must go down too, or else master will observe thatsomething is missing.' When the two wings were eaten, she went andlooked for her master, and did not see him. It suddenly occurred toher: 'Who knows? They are perhaps not coming at all, and have turnedin somewhere.' Then she said: 'Well, Gretel, enjoy yourself, one fowlhas been cut into, take another drink, and eat it up entirely; when itis eaten you will have some peace, why should God's good gifts bespoilt?' So she ran into the cellar again, took an enormous drink andate up the one chicken in great glee. When one of the chickens wasswallowed down, and still her master did not come, Gretel looked atthe other and said: 'What one is, the other should be likewise, thetwo go together; what's right for the one is right for the other; Ithink if I were to take another draught it would do me no harm.' Soshe took another hearty drink, and let the second chicken follow thefirst.
While she was making the most of it, her master came and cried: 'Hurryup, Gretel, the guest is coming directly after me!' 'Yes, sir, I willsoon serve up,' answered Gretel. Meantime the master looked to seewhat the table was properly laid, and took the great knife, wherewithhe was going to carve the chickens, and sharpened it on the steps.Presently the guest came, and knocked politely and courteously at thehouse-door. Gretel ran, and looked to see who was there, and when shesaw 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 theworse for you; he certainly did ask you to supper, but his intentionis to cut off your two ears. Just listen how he is sharpening theknife for it!' The guest heard the sharpening, and hurried down thesteps again as fast as he could. Gretel was not idle; she ranscreaming to her master, and cried: 'You have invited a fine guest!''Why, Gretel? What do you mean by that?' 'Yes,' said she, 'he hastaken 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 thatsomething remained for me to eat.' He called to him to stop, but theguest pretended not to hear. Then he ran after him with the knifestill in his hand, crying: 'Just one, just one,' meaning that theguest 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 hisears, and ran as if fire were burning under him, in order to take themboth with him.