<h2><SPAN name="link2H_4_0030" id="link2H_4_0030"></SPAN> THE LITTLE PEASANT </h2>
<p>There was a certain village wherein no one lived but really rich peasants,
and just one poor one, whom they called the little peasant. He had not
even so much as a cow, and still less money to buy one, and yet he and his
wife did so wish to have one. One day he said to her: ‘Listen, I have a
good idea, there is our gossip the carpenter, he shall make us a wooden
calf, and paint it brown, so that it looks like any other, and in time it
will certainly get big and be a cow.’ the woman also liked the idea, and
their gossip the carpenter cut and planed the calf, and painted it as it
ought to be, and made it with its head hanging down as if it were eating.</p>
<p>Next morning when the cows were being driven out, the little peasant
called the cow-herd in and said: ‘Look, I have a little calf there, but it
is still small and has to be carried.’ The cow-herd said: ‘All right,’ and
took it in his arms and carried it to the pasture, and set it among the
grass. The little calf always remained standing like one which was eating,
and the cow-herd said: ‘It will soon run by itself, just look how it eats
already!’ At night when he was going to drive the herd home again, he said
to the calf: ‘If you can stand there and eat your fill, you can also go on
your four legs; I don’t care to drag you home again in my arms.’ But the
little peasant stood at his door, and waited for his little calf, and when
the cow-herd drove the cows through the village, and the calf was missing,
he inquired where it was. The cow-herd answered: ‘It is still standing out
there eating. It would not stop and come with us.’ But the little peasant
said: ‘Oh, but I must have my beast back again.’ Then they went back to
the meadow together, but someone had stolen the calf, and it was gone. The
cow-herd said: ‘It must have run away.’ The peasant, however, said: ‘Don’t
tell me that,’ and led the cow-herd before the mayor, who for his
carelessness condemned him to give the peasant a cow for the calf which
had run away.</p>
<p>And now the little peasant and his wife had the cow for which they had so
long wished, and they were heartily glad, but they had no food for it, and
could give it nothing to eat, so it soon had to be killed. They salted the
flesh, and the peasant went into the town and wanted to sell the skin
there, so that he might buy a new calf with the proceeds. On the way he
passed by a mill, and there sat a raven with broken wings, and out of pity
he took him and wrapped him in the skin. But as the weather grew so bad
and there was a storm of rain and wind, he could go no farther, and turned
back to the mill and begged for shelter. The miller’s wife was alone in
the house, and said to the peasant: ‘Lay yourself on the straw there,’ and
gave him a slice of bread and cheese. The peasant ate it, and lay down
with his skin beside him, and the woman thought: ‘He is tired and has gone
to sleep.’ In the meantime came the parson; the miller’s wife received him
well, and said: ‘My husband is out, so we will have a feast.’ The peasant
listened, and when he heard them talk about feasting he was vexed that he
had been forced to make shift with a slice of bread and cheese. Then the
woman served up four different things, roast meat, salad, cakes, and wine.</p>
<p>Just as they were about to sit down and eat, there was a knocking outside.
The woman said: ‘Oh, heavens! It is my husband!’ she quickly hid the roast
meat inside the tiled stove, the wine under the pillow, the salad on the
bed, the cakes under it, and the parson in the closet on the porch. Then
she opened the door for her husband, and said: ‘Thank heaven, you are back
again! There is such a storm, it looks as if the world were coming to an
end.’ The miller saw the peasant lying on the straw, and asked, ‘What is
that fellow doing there?’ ‘Ah,’ said the wife, ‘the poor knave came in the
storm and rain, and begged for shelter, so I gave him a bit of bread and
cheese, and showed him where the straw was.’ The man said: ‘I have no
objection, but be quick and get me something to eat.’ The woman said: ‘But
I have nothing but bread and cheese.’ ‘I am contented with anything,’
replied the husband, ‘so far as I am concerned, bread and cheese will do,’
and looked at the peasant and said: ‘Come and eat some more with me.’ The
peasant did not require to be invited twice, but got up and ate. After
this the miller saw the skin in which the raven was, lying on the ground,
and asked: ‘What have you there?’ The peasant answered: ‘I have a
soothsayer inside it.’ ‘Can he foretell anything to me?’ said the miller.
‘Why not?’ answered the peasant: ‘but he only says four things, and the
fifth he keeps to himself.’ The miller was curious, and said: ‘Let him
foretell something for once.’ Then the peasant pinched the raven’s head,
so that he croaked and made a noise like krr, krr. The miller said: ‘What
did he say?’ The peasant answered: ‘In the first place, he says that there
is some wine hidden under the pillow.’ ‘Bless me!’ cried the miller, and
went there and found the wine. ‘Now go on,’ said he. The peasant made the
raven croak again, and said: ‘In the second place, he says that there is
some roast meat in the tiled stove.’ ‘Upon my word!’ cried the miller, and
went thither, and found the roast meat. The peasant made the raven
prophesy still more, and said: ‘Thirdly, he says that there is some salad
on the bed.’ ‘That would be a fine thing!’ cried the miller, and went
there and found the salad. At last the peasant pinched the raven once more
till he croaked, and said: ‘Fourthly, he says that there are some cakes
under the bed.’ ‘That would be a fine thing!’ cried the miller, and looked
there, and found the cakes.</p>
<p>And now the two sat down to the table together, but the miller’s wife was
frightened to death, and went to bed and took all the keys with her. The
miller would have liked much to know the fifth, but the little peasant
said: ‘First, we will quickly eat the four things, for the fifth is
something bad.’ So they ate, and after that they bargained how much the
miller was to give for the fifth prophecy, until they agreed on three
hundred talers. Then the peasant once more pinched the raven’s head till
he croaked loudly. The miller asked: ‘What did he say?’ The peasant
replied: ‘He says that the Devil is hiding outside there in the closet on
the porch.’ The miller said: ‘The Devil must go out,’ and opened the
house-door; then the woman was forced to give up the keys, and the peasant
unlocked the closet. The parson ran out as fast as he could, and the
miller said: ‘It was true; I saw the black rascal with my own eyes.’ The
peasant, however, made off next morning by daybreak with the three hundred
talers.</p>
<p>At home the small peasant gradually launched out; he built a beautiful
house, and the peasants said: ‘The small peasant has certainly been to the
place where golden snow falls, and people carry the gold home in shovels.’
Then the small peasant was brought before the mayor, and bidden to say
from whence his wealth came. He answered: ‘I sold my cow’s skin in the
town, for three hundred talers.’ When the peasants heard that, they too
wished to enjoy this great profit, and ran home, killed all their cows,
and stripped off their skins in order to sell them in the town to the
greatest advantage. The mayor, however, said: ‘But my servant must go
first.’ When she came to the merchant in the town, he did not give her
more than two talers for a skin, and when the others came, he did not give
them so much, and said: ‘What can I do with all these skins?’</p>
<p>Then the peasants were vexed that the small peasant should have thus
outwitted them, wanted to take vengeance on him, and accused him of this
treachery before the mayor. The innocent little peasant was unanimously
sentenced to death, and was to be rolled into the water, in a barrel
pierced full of holes. He was led forth, and a priest was brought who was
to say a mass for his soul. The others were all obliged to retire to a
distance, and when the peasant looked at the priest, he recognized the man
who had been with the miller’s wife. He said to him: ‘I set you free from
the closet, set me free from the barrel.’ At this same moment up came,
with a flock of sheep, the very shepherd whom the peasant knew had long
been wishing to be mayor, so he cried with all his might: ‘No, I will not
do it; if the whole world insists on it, I will not do it!’ The shepherd
hearing that, came up to him, and asked: ‘What are you about? What is it
that you will not do?’ The peasant said: ‘They want to make me mayor, if I
will but put myself in the barrel, but I will not do it.’ The shepherd
said: ‘If nothing more than that is needful in order to be mayor, I would
get into the barrel at once.’ The peasant said: ‘If you will get in, you
will be mayor.’ The shepherd was willing, and got in, and the peasant shut
the top down on him; then he took the shepherd’s flock for himself, and
drove it away. The parson went to the crowd, and declared that the mass
had been said. Then they came and rolled the barrel towards the water.
When the barrel began to roll, the shepherd cried: ‘I am quite willing to
be mayor.’ They believed no otherwise than that it was the peasant who was
saying this, and answered: ‘That is what we intend, but first you shall
look about you a little down below there,’ and they rolled the barrel down
into the water.</p>
<p>After that the peasants went home, and as they were entering the village,
the small peasant also came quietly in, driving a flock of sheep and
looking quite contented. Then the peasants were astonished, and said:
‘Peasant, from whence do you come? Have you come out of the water?’ ‘Yes,
truly,’ replied the peasant, ‘I sank deep, deep down, until at last I got
to the bottom; I pushed the bottom out of the barrel, and crept out, and
there were pretty meadows on which a number of lambs were feeding, and
from thence I brought this flock away with me.’ Said the peasants: ‘Are
there any more there?’ ‘Oh, yes,’ said he, ‘more than I could want.’ Then
the peasants made up their minds that they too would fetch some sheep for
themselves, a flock apiece, but the mayor said: ‘I come first.’ So they
went to the water together, and just then there were some of the small
fleecy clouds in the blue sky, which are called little lambs, and they
were reflected in the water, whereupon the peasants cried: ‘We already see
the sheep down below!’ The mayor pressed forward and said: ‘I will go down
first, and look about me, and if things promise well I’ll call you.’ So he
jumped in; splash! went the water; it sounded as if he were calling them,
and the whole crowd plunged in after him as one man. Then the entire
village was dead, and the small peasant, as sole heir, became a rich man.</p>
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