86 lines
5.2 KiB
Text
86 lines
5.2 KiB
Text
Lazy Harry
|
||
|
||
Harry was lazy, and although he had nothing else to do but drive his
|
||
goat daily to pasture, he nevertheless groaned when he went home after
|
||
his day’s work was done. “It is indeed a heavy burden,” said he, “and a
|
||
wearisome employment to drive a goat into the field this way year after
|
||
year, till late into the autumn! If one could but lie down and sleep,
|
||
but no, one must have one’s eyes open lest it hurts the young trees, or
|
||
squeezes itself through the hedge into a garden, or runs away
|
||
altogether. How can one have any rest, or peace of one’s life?” He
|
||
seated himself, collected his thoughts, and considered how he could set
|
||
his shoulders free from this burden. For a long time all thinking was
|
||
to no purpose, but suddenly it was as if scales fell from his eyes. “I
|
||
know what I will do,” he cried, “I will marry fat Trina who has also a
|
||
goat, and can take mine out with hers, and then I shall have no more
|
||
need to trouble myself.”
|
||
|
||
So Harry got up, set his weary legs in motion, and went right across
|
||
the street, for it was no farther, to where the parents of fat Trina
|
||
lived, and asked for their industrious and virtuous daughter in
|
||
marriage. The parents did not reflect long. “Birds of a feather, flock
|
||
together,” they thought, and consented.
|
||
|
||
So fat Trina became Harry’s wife, and led out both the goats. Harry had
|
||
a good time of it, and had no work that he required to rest from but
|
||
his own idleness. He only went out with her now and then, and said, “I
|
||
merely do it that I may afterwards enjoy rest more, otherwise one loses
|
||
all feeling for it.”
|
||
|
||
But fat Trina was no less idle. “Dear Harry,” said she one day, “why
|
||
should we make our lives so toilsome when there is no need for it, and
|
||
thus ruin the best days of our youth? Would it not be better for us to
|
||
give the two goats which disturb us every morning in our sweetest sleep
|
||
with their bleating, to our neighbor, and he will give us a beehive for
|
||
them. We will put the beehive in a sunny place behind the house, and
|
||
trouble ourselves no more about it. Bees do not require to be taken
|
||
care of, or driven into the field; they fly out and find the way home
|
||
again for themselves, and collect honey without giving the very least
|
||
trouble.” “Thou hast spoken like a sensible woman,” replied Harry. “We
|
||
will carry out thy proposal without delay, and besides all that, honey
|
||
tastes better and nourishes one better than goat’s milk, and it can be
|
||
kept longer too.”
|
||
|
||
The neighbor willingly gave a beehive for the two goats. The bees flew
|
||
in and out from early morning till late evening without ever tiring,
|
||
and filled the hive with the most beautiful honey, so that in autumn
|
||
Harry was able to take a whole pitcherful out of it.
|
||
|
||
They placed the jug on a board which was fixed to the wall of their
|
||
bed-room, and as they were afraid that it might be stolen from them, or
|
||
that the mice might find it, Trina brought in a stout hazel-stick and
|
||
put it beside her bed, so that without unnecessary getting up she might
|
||
reach it with her hand, and drive away the uninvited guests. Lazy Harry
|
||
did not like to leave his bed before noon. “He who rises early,” said
|
||
he, “wastes his substance.”
|
||
|
||
One morning when he was still lying amongst the feathers in broad
|
||
daylight, resting after his long sleep, he said to his wife, “Women are
|
||
fond of sweet things, and thou art always tasting the honey in private;
|
||
it will be better for us to exchange it for a goose with a young
|
||
gosling, before thou eatest up the whole of it.” “But,” answered Trina,
|
||
“not before we have a child to take care of them! Am I to worry myself
|
||
with the little geese, and spend all my strength on them to no
|
||
purpose.” “Dost thou think,” said Harry, “that the youngster will look
|
||
after geese? Now-a-days children no longer obey, they do according to
|
||
their own fancy, because they consider themselves cleverer than their
|
||
parents, just like that lad who was sent to seek the cow and chased
|
||
three blackbirds.” “Oh,” replied Trina, “this one shall fare badly if
|
||
he does not do what I say! I will take a stick and belabour his skin
|
||
for him with more blows than I can count. Look, Harry,” cried she in
|
||
her zeal, and seized the stick which she had to drive the mice away
|
||
with, “Look, this is the way I will fall on him!” She reached her arm
|
||
out to strike, but unhappily hit the honey-pitcher above the bed. The
|
||
pitcher struck against the wall and fell down in fragments, and the
|
||
fine honey streamed down on the ground. “There lie the goose and the
|
||
young gosling,” said Harry, “and want no looking after. But it is lucky
|
||
that the pitcher did not fall on my head. We have all reason to be
|
||
satisfied with our lot.” And then as he saw that there was still some
|
||
honey in one of the fragments he stretched out his hand for it, and
|
||
said quite gaily, “The remains, my wife, we will still eat with a
|
||
relish, and we will rest a little after the fright we have had. What
|
||
matters if we do get up a little later the day is always long enough.”
|
||
“Yes,” answered Trina, “we shall always get to the end of it at the
|
||
proper time. Dost thou know that the snail was once asked to a wedding
|
||
and set out to go, but arrived at the christening. In front of the
|
||
house it fell over the fence, and said, ‘Speed does no good.’”
|