Clever Grethel

There was once a cook named Grethel, who wore shoes with red rosettes, and when she walked out with them on, she turned herself this way and that, 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, "Grethel, there is a guest coming this evening; prepare me two fowls very daintily."

"I will see to it, master," answered Grethel.

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 Grethel 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 directly, when they are juiciest."

The master said, "I will run myself, and fetch the guest."

When the master had turned his back, Grethel laid the spit with the fowls on one side, and thought,

"Standing so long by the fire there, makes one hot 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 to thy use, Grethel," and took a good drink, 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, Grethel 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 directly!"

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."