THE GOLDEN GOOSE
There was a man who had three sons, the youngest of whom was considered
very silly, and everybody used to mock him and make fun of him. The
eldest son wanted to go and cut wood in the forest, and before he left
home his mother prepared beautiful pancakes and a bottle of wine for him
to take with him, so that he might not suffer from hunger or thirst.
As he entered the forest he met a gray old man, who bade him
"Good-morning," and said: "Give me a little piece of cake out of your
basket and a drop of wine out of your bottle, for I am very hungry and
thirsty."
But the clever son replied: "What, give you my cake and my wine! Why, if
I did, I should have none for myself. Not I, indeed, so take yourself
off!" and he left the man standing and went on.
The young man began cutting down a tree, but it was not long before he
made a false stroke: the axe slipped and cut his arm so badly that he
was obliged to go home and have it bound up. Now, this false stroke was
caused by the little gray old man.
Next day the second son went into the forest to cut wood, and his mother
gave him a cake and a bottle of wine. As he entered the wood the same
little old man met him, and begged for a piece of cake and a drop of
wine. But the second son answered rudely: "What I might give to you I
shall want myself, so be off."
Then he left the little old man standing in the road, and walked on. His
punishment soon came; he had scarcely given two strokes on a tree with
his axe, when he hit his leg such a terrible blow that he was obliged to
limp home in great pain.
Then the stupid son said to his father, "Let me go for once and cut wood
in the forest."
But his father said: "No, your brothers have been hurt already, and it
would be worse for you, who don't understand wood-cutting."
The boy, however, begged so hard to be allowed to go that his father
said: "There, get along with you; you will buy your experience very
dearly, I expect."
His mother, however, gave him a cake which had been made with water and
baked in the ashes, and a bottle of sour beer.
When he reached the wood the very same little old man met him, and after
greeting him kindly, said: "Give me a little of your cake and a drop
from your bottle, for I am very hungry and thirsty."
"Oh," replied the simple youth, "I have only a cake, which has been
baked in the ashes, and some sour beer; but you are welcome to a share
of it. Let us sit down, and eat and drink together."
So they seated themselves, and, lo and behold, when the youth opened his
basket, the cake had been turned into a beautiful cake, and the sour
beer into wine. After they had eaten and drank enough, the little old
man said: "Because you have been kind-hearted, and shared your dinner
with me, I will make you in future lucky in all you undertake. There
stands an old tree; cut it down, and you will find something good at the
root."
Then the old man said "Farewell," and left him.
The youth set to work, and very soon succeeded in felling the tree, when
he found sitting at the roots a goose, whose feathers were of pure gold.
He took it up, and, instead of going home, carried it with him to an inn
at a little distance, where he intended to pass the night.
The landlord had three daughters, who looked at the goose with envious
eyes. They had never seen such a wonderful bird, and longed to have at
least one of its feathers. "Ah," thought the eldest, "I shall soon have
an opportunity to pluck one of them;" and so it happened, for not long
after the young man left the room. She instantly went up to the bird and
took hold of its wing, but as she did so, the finger and thumb remained
and stuck fast. In a short time after the second sister came in with the
full expectation of gaining a golden feather, but as she touched her
sister to move her from the bird, her hand stuck fast to her sister's
dress, and neither of them could free herself. At last, in came the
third sister with the same intention. "Keep away, keep away!" screamed
the other two; "in heaven's name keep away!"
But she could not imagine why she should keep away. If they were near
the golden bird, why should not she be there? So she made a spring
forward and touched her second sister, and immediately she also was made
a prisoner, and in this position they were obliged to remain by the
goose all night.
In the morning the young man came in, took the goose on his arm, and
went away without troubling himself about the three girls, who were
following close behind him. And as he walked quickly, they were obliged
to run one behind the other, left or right of him, just as he was
inclined to go.
In the middle of a field they were met by the parson of the parish, who
looked with wonder at the procession as it came near him. "Shame on
you!" he cried out. "What are you about, you bold-faced hussies, running
after a young man in that way through the fields? Go home, all of you."
He placed his hand on the youngest to pull her back, but the moment he
touched her he also became fixed, and was obliged to follow and run like
the rest. In a few minutes the clerk met them, and when he saw the
parson runing after the girls, he wondered greatly, and cried out,
"Halloa, master parson, where are you running in such haste? Have you
forgotten that there is a christening to-day?" And as the procession did
not stop, he ran after it, and seized the parson's gown.
In a moment he found that his hand was fixed, and he also had to run
like the rest. And now there were five trotting along, one behind the
other. Presently two peasants came by with their sickles from the field.
The parson called out to them, and begged them to come and release him
and the clerk. Hardly had they touched the clerk when they also stuck
fast as the others, and the simpleton with his golden goose travelled
with the seven.
After awhile they came to a city in which reigned a king who had a
daughter of such a melancholy disposition that no one could make her
laugh; therefore he issued a decree that whoever would make the princess
laugh should have her in marriage.
Now, when the simple youth heard this, he ran before her, and the whole
seven trotted after him. The sight was so ridiculous that the moment the
princess saw it she burst into a violent fit of laughter and they
thought she would never leave off.
After this, the youth went to the king, and demanded his daughter in
marriage, according to the king's decree; but his majesty did not quite
like to have the young man for a son-in-law, so he said that, before he
could consent to the marriage, the youth must bring him a man who could
drink all the wine in the king's cellar.
The simpleton went into the forest, for he thought, "If anyone can help
me, it is the little gray man." When he arrived at the spot where he had
cut down the tree, there stood a man with a very miserable face.
The youth asked him why he looked so sorrowful.
"Oh," he exclaimed, "I suffer such dreadful thirst that nothing seems
able to quench it; and cold water I cannot endure. I have emptied a cask
of wine already, but it was just like a drop of water on a hot stone."
"I can help you," cried the young man; "come with me, and you shall have
your fill, I promise you."
Upon this he led the man into the king's cellar, where he opened the
casks one after another, and drank and drank till his back ached; and
before the day closed he had quite emptied the king's cellar.
Again the young man asked for his bride, but the king was annoyed at the
thought of giving his daughter to such a common fellow, and to get rid
of him he made another condition. He said that no man should have his
daughter who could not find someone able to eat up a whole mountain of
bread.
Away went the simpleton to the forest as before, and there in the same
place sat a man binding himself round tightly with a belt, and making
the most horrible faces. As the youth approached, he cried, "I have
eaten a whole ovenful of rolls, but it has not satisfied me a bit; I am
as hungry as ever, and my stomach feels so empty that I am obliged to
bind it round tightly, or I should die of hunger."
The simpleton could hardly contain himself for joy when he heard this.
"Get up," he exclaimed, "and come with me, and I will give you plenty to
eat, I'll warrant."
So he led him to the king's court, where his majesty had ordered all the
flour in the kingdom to be made into bread, and piled up in a huge
mountain. The hungry man placed himself before the bread, and began to
eat, and before evening the whole pile had disappeared.
Then the simpleton went a third time to the king, and asked for his
bride, but the king made several excuses, and at last said that if he
could bring him a ship that would travel as well by land as by water,
then he should, without any further conditions, marry his daughter.
The youth went at once straight to the forest, and saw the same old gray
man to whom he had given his cake. "Ah," he said, as the youth
approached, "it was I who sent the men to eat and drink, and I will also
give you a ship that can travel by land or by sea, because when you
thought I was poor you were kind-hearted, and gave me food and drink."
The youth took the ship, and when the king saw it he was quite
surprised; but he could not any longer refuse to give him his daughter
in marriage. The wedding was celebrated with great pomp, and after the
king's death the simple wood-cutter inherited the whole kingdom, and
lived happily with his wife.