Oldal 148 [148]
112 GRIMM’S FAIRY TALES.
branches, where the ripest fruit hung, and pulling them down¬
wards, gave them to the tailor to hold, bidding him eat. But
the little tailor was much too weak to hold the tree, and as
the giant let go, the tree sprang back, and the tailor was
caught up into the air. And when he dropped down again
without any damage, the giant said to him,
‘“ How is this? haven’t you strength enough to hold such
a weak sprig as that?”
“Tt is not strength that is lacking,’ answered the little
tailor ; “ how should it to one who has slain seven at one blow!
I just jumped over the tree because the hunters are shooting
down there in the bushes. You jump it too, if you can.”
The giant made the attempt, and not being able to vault
the tree, he remained hanging in the branches, so that once
more the little tailor got the better of him. ‘Then said the
giant, |
“ As you are such a gallant fellow, suppose you come with
me to our den, and stay the night.”
The tailor was quite willing, and he followed him. When
they reached the den there sat some other giants by the fire,
and each had a roasted sheep in his hand, and was eating It.
The little tailor looked round and thought,
“There is more elbow-room here than in my workshop.”
And the giant showed him a bed, and told him he had
better lie down upon it and goto sleep. The bed was, how¬
ever, too big for the tailor, so he did not stay in it, but crept
into a corner to sleep. As soon as it was midnight the giant
got up, took a great staff of iron and beat the bed through
with one stroke, and supposed he had made an end of that
grasshopper of a tailor. Very early in the morning the giants
went into the wood and forgot all about the little tailor, and
when they saw him coming after them alive and merry, they
were terribly frightened, and, thinking he was going to kill
them, they ran away in all haste.
So the little tailor marched on, always following his nose.
And after he had gone a great way he entered the courtyard
belonging to a King’s palace, and there he felt so overpowered
with fatigue that he lay down and fell asleep. In the mean¬
while came various people, who looked at him very curiously,
and read on his belt, " Seven at one blow !”