and when she walked out with them on, she turned herself this way and

that, was quite happy and thought: 'You certainly are a pretty girl!' And

when she came home she drank, in her gladness of heart, a draught of

wine, and as wine excites a desire to eat, she tasted the best of whatever

she was cooking until she was satisfied, and said: 'The cook must know

what the food is like.' It came to pass that the master one day said

to her: 'Gretel, there is a guest coming this evening; prepare me two

fowls very daintily.' 'I will see to it, master,' answered Gretel. She killed

two fowls, scalded them, plucked them, put them on the spit, and towards

evening set them before the fire, that they might roast. The fowls

began to turn brown, and were nearly ready, but the guest had not yet

arrived. Then Gretel called out to her master: 'If the guest does not

come, I must take the fowls away from the fire, but it will be a sin and a

shame if they are not eaten the moment they are at their juiciest.' The master

said: 'I will run myself, and fetch the guest.' When the master had turned

his back, Gretel laid the spit with the fowls on one side, and thought:

'Standing so long by the fire there, makes one sweat and thirsty; who knows

when they will come? Meanwhile, I will run into the cellar, and

take a drink.' She ran down, set a jug, said: 'God bless it for you, Gretel,'

and took a good drink, and thought that wine should flow on, and should

not be interrupted, and took yet another hearty draught.

Then she went and put the fowls down again to the fire, basted them,

and drove the spit merrily round. But as the roast meat smelt so good,

Gretel thought: 'Something might be wrong, it ought to be tasted!' She

touched it with her finger, and said: 'Ah! how good fowls are! It certainly

is a sin and a shame that they are not eaten at the right time!' She ran to

the window, to see if the master was not coming with his guest, but she

saw no one, and went back to the fowls and thought: 'One of the wings is

burning! I had better take it off and eat it.' So she cut it off, ate it, and enjoyed

it, and when she had done, she thought: 'The other must go down

too, or else master will observe that something is missing.' When the two

wings were eaten, she went and looked for her master, and did not see

him. It suddenly occurred to her: 'Who knows? They are perhaps not

coming at all, and have turned in somewhere.' Then she said: 'Well,

Gretel, enjoy yourself, one fowl has been cut into, take another drink,

and eat it up entirely; when it is eaten you will have some peace, why

96 should God's good gifts be spoilt?' So she

ran into the cellar again, took an enormous drink and ate up the one chicken

in great glee. When one of the chickens was swallowed down, and still

her master did not come, Gretel looked at the other and said: 'What

one is, the other should be likewise, the two go together; what's right

for the one is right for the other; I think if I were to take another draught

it would do me no harm.' So she took another hearty drink, and let the

second chicken follow the first. While she was making the most of it, her master

came and cried: 'Hurry up, Gretel, the guest is coming directly

after me!' 'Yes, sir, I will soon serve up,' answered Gretel. Meantime

the master looked to see what the table was properly laid, and took

the great knife, wherewith he was going to carve the chickens, and sharpened

it on the steps. Presently the guest came, and knocked politely and courteously

at the house-door. Gretel ran, and looked to see who was there,

and when she saw the guest, she put her finger to her lips and

said: 'Hush! hush! go away as quickly as you can, if my master catches you

it will be the worse for you; he certainly did ask you to supper, but his

intention is to cut off your two ears. Just listen how he is sharpening the

knife for it!' The guest heard the sharpening, and hurried down the steps again

as fast as he could. Gretel was not idle; she ran screaming to her master,

and cried: 'You have invited a fine guest!' 'Why, Gretel? What do you mean

by that?' 'Yes,' said she, 'he has taken the chickens which I was

just going to serve up, off the dish, and has run away with them!' 'That's

a nice trick!' said her master, and lamented the fine chickens. 'If he had

but left me one, so that something remained for me to eat.' He called

to him to stop, but the guest pretended not to hear. Then he ran after

him with the knife still in his hand, crying: 'Just one, just one,' meaning

that the guest should leave him just one chicken, and not take both. The

guest, however, thought no otherwise than that he was to give up one

of his ears, and ran as if fire were burning under him, in order to take them

both with him.