Page 192 [192]
152 GRIMM’S FAIRY TALES.
‘* How can I be full?
There was nothing to pull,
Though I looked all about me—ba! baa!”
When the tailor heard that he marvelled, and saw at once
that his three sons had been sent away without reason.
“Wait a minute,” cried he, “ you ungrateful creature! It
is not enough merely to drive you away—I will teach you to
show your face again among honourable tailors.”
So in haste he went and fetched his razor, and seizing the
goat he shaved her head as smooth as the palm of his hand.
And as the yard-measure was too honourable a weapon, he
took the whip and fetched her such a crack that with many a
jump and spring she ran away.
The tailor felt very sad as he sat alone in his house, and
would willingly have had his sons back again, but no one
knew where they had gone.
The eldest son, when he was driven from home, appren¬
ticed himself to a joiner, and he applied himself diligently
to his trade, and when the time came for him to travel his
master gave him a little table, nothing much to look at, and
made of common wood ; but it had one great quality. When
any one set it down and said, " Table, be covered !” all at
once the good little table had a clean cloth on it, and a plate,
and knife, and fork, and dishes with roast and boiled, and a
large glass of red wine sparkling so as to cheer the heart. The
young apprentice thought he was set up for life, and he went
merrily out into the world, and never cared whether an inn
were good or bad, or whether he could get anything to eat there
or not. When he was hungry, it did not matter where he was,
whether in the fields, in the woods, or in a meadow, he set
down his table and said, " Be covered!” and there he was pro¬
vided with everything that heart could wish. At last it occurred
to him that he would go back to his father, whose wrath might
by this time have subsided, and perhaps because of the
wonderful table he might receive him again gladly. It hap¬
pened that one evening during his journey home he came to
an inn that was quite full of. guests, who bade him welcome,
and asked him to sit down with them and eat, as otherwise he
would have found some difficulty in getting anything.