There was once a man who had a daughter called Clever Alice. When she
was grown up her father said, “We must get her married.”
“Yes,” said her mother; “if only some one would come who would have
her.”
At last a young man named Hans came from a distance and wooed her; but
he made one condition,—that Clever Alice should be as clever as she was
said to be.
“Oh,” said her father, “she’s sharp enough.”
“Yes, indeed!” said her mother; “she can see the wind coming up the
street, and hear the flies coughing.”
“Very well,” replied Hans; “but if she is not really clever, I won’t
have her.”
When they were all sitting together at dinner the mother said, “Alice,
go down into the cellar and draw some beer.”
So Clever Alice took the jug from the nail on the wall, and went into
the cellar, tapping the lid up and down as she went to pass away the
time. When she reached the cellar she fetched a chair and put it in
front of the cask so that she need not stoop and hurt her back. Then
she held the jug in her hand and turned the tap. While the beer was
running, as she did not wish to be idle, she let her eyes wander all
over the wall, looking first this way and then that. All at once she
saw just above her head a pickax, which the masons had accidentally
left there.
Then Clever Alice began to cry, saying, “If I marry Hans, and we have a
child, and he grows up, and we send him into the cellar here to draw
beer, then the pickax will fall on his head and kill him.”
So she sat and wept and cried with all her might over the misfortune
which lay before her.
The people upstairs waited for the beer, but still Clever Alice did not
come. At last her mother said to the maid, “Go down into the cellar and
see why Clever Alice is staying so long.”
The maid went and found her sitting before the cask, crying bitterly.
“Alice, what are you crying about?” she asked.
“Alas!” she answered, “have I not reason to weep? If I marry Hans, and
we have a child, and he grows up and has to draw beer here, perhaps
that pickax will fall on his head and kill him.”
Then the maid said, “What a clever Alice we have!” and she, too, sat
down by Alice and began to weep over this misfortune.
After a while, as the maid did not come back and the people upstairs
were getting very thirsty, the husband said to the boy, “Go down cellar
and see what has become of Alice and the maid.”
The boy went down, and there sat Alice and the maid weeping together.
So he said, “What are you crying for?”
“Alas!” said Alice, “have I not reason to cry? If I marry Hans, and we
have a child, and he grows up and has to draw beer here, that pickax
will fall on his head and kill him.”
Then the boy said, “What a clever Alice we have!” and he sat down by
Alice and began to howl lustily.
Upstairs they waited for the boy, but when he did not come the husband
said, “Do go down cellar, wife, and see why Alice does not come back.”
The wife went downstairs and found the three in the midst of their
lamentations. She asked the reason, and Alice told her, also, how her
future child, when it grew up and was sent to draw beer, would be
killed by the pickax which would fall down. Then the mother likewise
exclaimed, “What a clever Alice we have!” and sat down and wept with
them.
The husband upstairs waited a short time, but at last, as his wife did
not return and his thirst grew greater, he said, “I must go down into
the cellar myself and see what has become of Alice.”
But when he entered the cellar and found them all sitting there
together crying, and heard the reason, how Alice’s child was the cause
of it all, because she might possibly have a child, who might be killed
by the pickax, if he should happen to be sitting beneath it drawing
beer just at the moment when the pickax fell down, then he, too, said,
“What a clever Alice we have!” and sat down and wept with them.
The bridegroom waited upstairs alone for a long time; then, as nobody
came, he said: “They must be waiting downstairs for me. I will go down
and see what they are about.” When he got downstairs there sat all
five, weeping and lamenting in a heartrending way, each a little louder
than the others.
“What misfortune can possibly have happened?” he asked.
“Alas! dear Hans,” said Alice, “if we marry and have a child, and he
grows up, and we happen to send him into the cellar here to draw beer,
then that pickax which has been hanging up there might kill him if it
were to fall down upon his head; so have we not reason to weep?”
“Well,” said Hans, “more cleverness than that is not needed to keep
house for me; and as you are such a clever Alice I will have you for my
wife.” So he took her by the hand, led her upstairs with him, and
married her.
When they had been married some time, Hans said, “Wife, I am going out
to work and earn some money for us; do you go into the field and cut
the corn, so that we may have some bread.”
“Yes, my dear Hans, I will do so.”
After Hans went away Alice cooked some nice broth for herself and took
it into the field with her. When she got there she said to herself:
“Now which shall I do? Shall I reap first, or eat first? I will eat
first.”
So she emptied her bowl of broth, and when she was satisfied she said
again: “Now which shall I do? Shall I reap first, or sleep first? I
will sleep first.”
Then she lay down in the corn and fell asleep.
Meanwhile Hans had been at home some time, but Alice did not come.
“What a clever Alice she is!” said he; “she is so industrious that she
does not even come home to eat.”
But as she still did not come, Hans went out to see how much she had
reaped; but nothing was cut, and there lay Alice fast asleep in the
corn. Hans hurried home and brought back a fowler’s net with little
bells on it; this he hung about her, and still she did not wake. Then
he ran home, shut the house door, and sat down to work.
At last, when it was quite dark, Clever Alice woke. When she stood up
the net fell rattling about her, and the bells jingled at every step
she took. This frightened her, and made her wonder whether she was
really Clever Alice or not, and she said to herself, “Is it I, or is it
not I?”
But she did not know how to answer, and stood for a long time in doubt.
At last she thought, “I will go home and ask if it is I, or if it is
not I; they will be sure to know.”
She ran to the door of her house, but it was locked. Then she knocked
on the window, and cried, “Hans, is Alice at home?”
“Yes,” answered Hans, “she is at home.”
Then she was frightened and cried, “Alas! then it is not I,” and she
ran to the next door; but when the people heard the jingling of the
bells they would not open for her, and she could get in nowhere. So she
ran away out of the village, and no one has ever seen her since.