“Basket, give me some good flour, so that I may make bread.”
The basket gave her as much as she wished. She continued asking for very
many things, and everything she named the basket gave her.
Now it chanced that one day a nobleman was passing by the peasant’s hut.
When the woman saw him she said to her husband—
“Go and ask the nobleman to dine with us. If you do not bring him in I
will beat you till you are half dead.”
The man was afraid of his wife carrying out her threat, so he set off
and asked the stranger in to dinner.
His wife meanwhile watched him from the window, having taken out of the
basket all that was required for the dinner. There she sat, with her
hands in her lap, awaiting her husband’s return with the guest.
The nobleman was astonished, and laughed at the invitation. He would not
accept it himself, but told his attendants they might go if they wished,
and he should like to know how they dined.
So the attendants went, thinking they should fare very badly, for the
appearance of the hut would not have led any one to suppose that there
was much feasting to be had within it. When they entered they were
vastly astonished. The dinner was such as would have done credit had it
been provided by a host of some rank. The men sat down, and ate and
drank and made merry; and, keeping their eyes open the while, they
observed that when the woman wanted anything for the table she went to
the basket and got it given to her by it. The men began to think how
they could get the prize for themselves. As they feasted they sent off
one of their number to look for a basket just like the one in the room.
Off went the man as quickly as he could, found what he wanted, and
brought it with him to the cottage. Then while the peasant and his wife
were busy, the men slipped the new basket in the place of the other.
When they left they carried away the treasure-basket with them, and
coming to their master they told him how they had been entertained.
After the feast was over and the guests had gone, the peasant’s wife
cast away the food that was left, for what was the use of keeping it
when fresh could be so easily got? The next morning she went to the
basket and asked it for various things, but a great change seemed to
have come over it, for it paid no heed to her.
“Old Greyhead,” cried she to her husband, “this is a nice basket you
have got us! What is the good of it if it does not do what we tell it?
Be off to the wind again, and tell it to give you back your flour, or I
will thrash you till you are half dead.”
There was nothing for it but he must go. He came to the old woman’s hut,
and there he began to tell her what a terrible wife he had got, and the
old woman told him to wait a while till her son, the South-wind, came
home.
Not long after in came the South-wind, and the peasant told him all
about his trouble.
“Well,” said the wind, when he had heard him to an end, “I am sorry, old
man, that you have such a bad wife, but I will help you, and your wife
shall thrash you no more. Here now is a cask. Take it home with you, and
when your wife threatens to beat you, stand behind the cask and say,
‘Five, come out of the cask and beat my wife!’ When you think they have
punished her sufficiently, say, ‘Five, go back to your cask!’”
The peasant was very grateful to the Wind, made him his best bow, and
went home. When he got there, he said—
“There, wife, now you have a cask instead of the basket.”