There was once an old man whose wife was exceedingly quarrelsome. The
old man had no rest from her day or night; she nagged and nagged at
him at every little trifle, but if the old man ventured to gainsay
her in anything, she immediately caught up a broomstick, or something
else, and chased him out of the kitchen. The old man had only one
consolation; he would leave his old woman and go into the fields to
set snares and bird-traps, hang them up on the branches of all the
trees, and entice into his snares every bird that God has made, and
so he would bring home a great booty, and give his old woman enough
to last her for a whole day, or even two, and then he would for once
enjoy a day in peace.
One day he went out into the fields and set his snares, and caught
in them a crane. "What a stroke of luck!" thought the old man; "when
I take home this crane to my old woman and we kill and roast it, she
won't row me for a long time." But the crane guessed his thoughts,
and said to him with a human voice: "Don't take me home and kill me,
but let me go and live at liberty as before; thou shalt be dearer to
me than my own father, and I will be as good as a son to thee." The
old man was amazed at these words and let the crane go.
But when he returned home with empty hands, the old woman nagged at
him so frightfully that he dared not go into the house, but passed the
night in the courtyard beneath the staircase. Very early in the morning
he went out into the fields, and was just about to lay his snares when
he saw the crane of the evening before coming towards him, holding
in its long beak a sort of knapsack. "Yesterday," said the crane,
"thou didst set me free, and to-day I bring thee a little gift. Say
'thanks' for it. Just look at it!" It placed the knapsack on the ground
and cried: "Two out of the knapsack!" And whence I know not, but out
of the knapsack leaped two youths, brought oaken tables, covered them
with dishes, and on them was flesh and fowl of every description. The
old man ate his fill of such delicacies as it had never been his luck
to see all his life even from afar; he ate and drank without stopping,
and would only rise from the table when the crane cried: "Two into the
knapsack!" And the tables with all the flesh and fowl were as if they
had never been. "Take this knapsack," said the crane, "and give it to
thy old woman." The old man thanked him and went home. But all at once
the desire seized him to brag about his booty to his godmother. So he
went to his godmother, inquired after the healths of herself and her
three daughters, and said: "Give me a little supper, according as God
has blessed thee!" The godmother put before him what was on the stove,
curtseyed, and bade him fall to. But the godson turned up his nose
and said to the godmother: "Thine is sorry fare! Why I have as good
as that when I'm on the road. I'll stand treat to thee."--"Very well,
do so." The old man immediately brought out his knapsack, placed it on
the ground, and the moment he cried: "Two out of the knapsack!" two
youths, whence they came I know not, leaped out of the knapsack,
placed the oaken tables, covered them with carved dishes, and placed
upon them all sorts of flesh and fowl, such as the godmother had
never seen from the day of her birth. The godmother and her daughters
ate and drank their fill, and her thoughts were not good; she meant
to deprive her godson of his knapsack by subtlety. And she began
flattering her godson, and said to him: "My dear little dovey godson,
thou art tired to-day, wilt thou not stop and have a bath? We have
everything handy to warm the bath-room for thee." The godson did not
say no to a bath, hung up his knapsack in the hut, and went into the
bath-room to bathe. But the godmother immediately bade her daughters
sew together in hot haste just such another knapsack as the old man's,
and when they had finished it, she foisted her knapsack on the old
man, and took his knapsack for herself. The old man noticed nothing,
and went home cheerily-cheerful; he sang songs and whistled all the
way, and no sooner did he get home than he cried to his old woman:
"Wife, wife, congratulate me upon the gift which I have got from the
son of the crane!" The old woman looked at him and thought: "You've
been drinking somewhere to-day, I know; I'll give you a lesson!" The
old man when he got into the hut immediately placed his knapsack in
the middle of the floor and cried: "Two out of the knapsack!" But
out of the knapsack came nobody at all. A second time he cried:
"Two out of the knapsack!" And again there was nobody. The old woman
when she saw this let loose the full flood of her abuse upon him,
flew at him like a whirlwind, caught up a wet mop on her way, and it
was as much as he could do to escape from her and dash out of the hut.
The poor fellow fell a-weeping, and went to the self-same spot in the
fields, thinking: "Perhaps I may meet the crane and get another such
knapsack from him!" And indeed the crane was there, and was waiting
for the old man with just such another knapsack. "Here is just such
another knapsack, and it will be of as good service as the former
one." The old man bowed to the very girdle and ran off home at full
speed. But on the way a doubt occurred to him: "If now this knapsack
be not quite the same as the other one, I shall get into a mess again
with my old woman--and this time I shall not be able to hide my head
from her even under the ground. Come along then: 'Two out of the
knapsack!'" Immediately two young men leaped out of the knapsack with
long sticks in their hands and began to belabour him, crying: "Don't
go to thy godmother; don't be fooled by honeyed words!" And they kept
on beating the old man till he bethought himself to say: "Two into the
knapsack!" Then the young men hid themselves in the knapsack. "Well,"
thought the old man, "I cracked up the other knapsack to my godmother
like a fool, but I shall not be a fool if I crack up this to her
also. I wonder if she would like to filch this one from me also? She'd
thank me on the other side of her mouth." So he went quite cheerily
to his godmother, hung up the knapsack on the wall, and said: "Pray,
heat me a bath, godmother."--"With pleasure, godson." The old man got
into the bath and had a good wash, staying as long as he could. The
godmother called her daughters, placed them behind the table, and said:
"Two out of the knapsack." And out of the knapsack leaped the young
men with the long sticks and began beating the godmother and crying:
"Give the old man back his knapsack." The godmother sent her eldest
daughter to the old man and said: "Call our godson out of the bath;
say that these two are beating me to death." But the godson replied
out of the bath: "I have not finished bathing yet!" The godmother
sent her youngest daughter, but the godson replied out of the bath:
"I have not washed my head yet!" But the two youths kept beating
the godmother all the time and saying: "Give back the old man's
knapsack!" The godmother's patience was quite tired out, and she bade
her daughters bring the stolen knapsack, and throw it to the old man
in the bath-room. Then the old man got out of his bath and cried:
"Two into the knapsack!" And the young men with the long sticks were
no more.
Then the old man took both the knapsacks and went home. He approached
the house and again began crying: "Congratulate me, wife, on the
gifts I have got from the son of the crane!" The old woman flared
up at once and got her broom ready. But the old man when he came
in, cried: "Two out of the knapsack!" and immediately the tables
appeared before the old woman, and the two young men placed on the
tables flesh and fowl in abundance. The old woman ate and drank her
fill, and became quite mild and tender. "Well, dear little hubby,
I'll thwack thee no more." But the old man after dinner took this
knapsack and put it away, and unexpectedly got out the other,
and placed it on the bench in the hut. The old woman wanted to see
for herself how the old man's knapsack set to work, so she cried:
"Two out of the knapsack!" Immediately the two young men with the
long sticks popped out, and fell to beating the old woman, crying
all the time: "Don't beat thy old man! Don't curse thy old man!" The
old woman screeched with all her might, and called to her old man to
help her. The old man took pity on her, came into the hut, and said:
"Two into the knapsack!" and the two disappeared into the knapsack.
From henceforth the old man and the old woman lived together in such
peace and quietness that the old man is always praising his old woman
to the skies, and so this story ends.