格林童话选 英文版 Grimms' Fairy Tales
格林兄弟 Brüder Grimm
THE OLD MAN AND HIS GRANDSON
There was once a very old man, whose eyes had become dim, his earsdull of hearing, his knees trembled, and when he sat at table he couldhardly hold the spoon, and spilt the broth upon the table-cloth or letit run out of his mouth. His son and his son's wife were disgusted atthis, so the old grandfather at last had to sit in the corner behindthe stove, and they gave him his food in an earthenware bowl, and noteven enough of it. And he used to look towards the table with his eyesfull 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, buthe said nothing and only sighed. Then they brought him a wooden bowlfor a few half-pence, out of which he had to eat.
They were once sitting thus when the little grandson of four years oldbegan to gather together some bits of wood upon the ground. 'What areyou doing there?' asked the father. 'I am making a little trough,'answered the child, 'for father and mother to eat out of when I ambig.'
The man and his wife looked at each other for a while, and presentlybegan to cry. Then they took the old grandfather to the table, andhenceforth always let him eat with them, and likewise said nothing ifhe did spill a little of anything.