"Fred and Kate" - The Fairy Tales of The Brothers Grimm

red and Kate were man and wife. They had not long been married.

One day Fred said, ' I am going into the fields, Kate ; I shall be hungry when I come in, so have something good ready for dinner, and a cool draught to quench my thirst.'

' All right, Fred, I will have it ready for you when you come back.'

When dinner-time approached, she took down a sausage from the chimney, put it into a frying-pan with some butter, and placed it on the fire. The sausage began to frizzle and splutter, and Kate stood holding the pan lost in her thoughts.

Suddenly she said : ' While the sausage is cooking, I might go down to the cellar to draw the beer.' So she put the pan firmly on the fire, and took a jug down to the cellar to draw the beer.

Kate watched the beer running into the jug, and suddenly she said : ' I don't believe the dog is tied up ; it might get the sausage out of the frying-pan and run off with it.'

She was up the cellar stairs in a twinkling, but the dog had already got the sausage in his jaws, and was just making off with it. Kate, who was very agile, ran after him, and chased him a good way over the fields. The dog, however, was quicker than she, and without letting go the sausage, he got right away.

' What is gone, is gone ! ' she said, and being tired out, she turned back and walked slowly home to cool herself.

In the meantime, the beer had been running out of the cask, because Kate had forgotten to turn the tap. As soon as the jug was full, the rest ran all over the cellar floor, till the cask was quite empty.

Kate saw what had happened as soon as she got to the top of the cellar stairs. ' Humph ! ' she cried, ' what am I to do now, so that Fred shan't discover it ? '

She thought a while, and at last she remembered a sack of fine meal they had left over from the last fair. She would fetch it down and strew it over the beer, ' To be sure,' she said, ' those who save at the right time have something when they need it.'

So she went up to the loft and brought the sack down, but, unfortunately, she threw it right on to the jug full of beer. It was overturned, and away went Fred's drink, flooding the cellar with the rest.

' Oh, that won't matter ! ' said Kate. ' When part is gone, the rest may as well follow.' Then she strewed the meal all over the cellar. She was delighted with her handiwork when it was finished, and said : ' How clean and fresh it looks.'

At dinner-time Fred came home. ' Well, wife, what have you got for dinner ? ' he said.

' O Fred ! ' she answered, ' I was frying you a sausage, but while I went down to draw the beer, the dog got it ; and while I ran after the dog, the beer ran out of the cask. Then when I was going to dry up the beer with the meal, I knocked the jug over. But never mind, the cellar is quite dry now.'

Fred said : ' Kate, Kate, what have you been doing ? First you let the sausage be carried off, then you let the beer run out of the cask, and, lastly, you waste our fine meal.'

' Well, Fred, I did not know ; you should have told me what to do.'

The man thought : ' If my wife is like this, I must look after things myself.'

Now, he had saved a nice little sum of money, which he changed into gold, and said to Kate : ' Do you see these yellow counters ? I am going to put them in a pot, and bury them underneath the cow's manger in the stable ; don't you meddle with them, or it will be the worse for you.'

And she said : ' Oh no, Fred, I won't.'

Now, when Fred had gone out, several Pedlars came into the village with earthen pots and pans for sale. They asked the young wife if she had nothing to give in exchange for them.

' Oh, good people,' said Kate, ' I have no money, and I can't buy anything, but if some yellow counters would be any good to you, I might do some business.'

' Yellow counters ! Why not ? You might as well show them to us,' said the naen.

' You must go into the stable and dig under the cow's manger, and you will find the yellow counters. I dare not go with you.'

So the rogues went to the stable and dug up the pot of gold.

They seized it and made off with it as fast as they could, leaving their pots and pans behind.

Kate thought she must use the new utensils, but as there was no lack in the kitchen, she knocked the bottom out of every pot and pan, and hung them on the fence round the house as ornaments.

When Fred came home and saw the new decorations, he said : ' Kate, whatever have you been doing now ? '

' I bought them, Fred, with the yellow counters which were hidden in the stable, but I did not get them myself ; the Pedlars dug them up.'

' Alas, wife ! ' said Fred, ' what have you done ? Those were not counters, they were pure gold, and all that we possess. You should not have done it.'

' Well, Fred, I did not know ; you should have told me.'