Germany
Once upon a time there was a poor peasant. One morning before
sunrise he rode into the forest to cut wood. There, under an oak tree, he
met a very old woman. She was standing before a large iron chest, and she
said to him, "You can redeem me and make yourself lucky! This iron chest
is filled to the top with hard thalers. Take it home with you, but tell no
one a solitary word about it, or it will bring you misfortune."
The man was delighted to hear these words, and the old woman was also
so friendly as to take hold of the chest and help him load it onto his
wagon. He thanked her kindly and rode back home.
"Mother," he said as the wagon pulled up to the door, "I'm not supposed
to tell anyone, but you are my dear wife, so the promise doesn't apply to
you."
"That's right, father," said the peasant's wife with curiosity. "I'll
be as silent as the grave. What is it then? Why are you coming home so
early from the woods?"
"That's exactly what it is!" answered the peasant. "I found a large
chest full of money under an oak tree. We shall never want again. But be
sure to hold your tongue. Now go and fix us something good to eat. I've
had no meat for a week now."
With that they lifted the chest from the wagon and carried it into the
cellar. Then the peasant's wife took a thaler out of the iron chest,
bought some meat, and roasted it on the hearth. What joy! However, her
neighbor had hardly smelled the delicious odor when she hurried by,
sniffed, and said, "Good day, kinswoman, what are you cooking?"
"Oh, neighbor," replied the woman, "I can't tell anyone, but of course
you can keep a secret. When my husband was driving into the forest to cut
wood, he found a large iron chest full of money beneath an oak tree."
"That is wonderful," said the kinswoman. "You told the right person,
for I won't repeat it to a soul!" Then she ran back to her house.
Not long afterward her brother's wife came to visit her from the
neighboring farm. "Sister-in-law, do you know what has happened?" she
asked her. "But you must be able to hold your tongue!"
"Oh, as though I were a blabbermouth!"
"I know, and that's why I said that. Our neighbor from over there, the
little peasant, while he was cutting wood in the forest he found a large
chest of gold under an oak tree."
The sister-in-law did indeed hold her tongue and carried the story to
the sexton's wife, and before the sun went down it had found its way to
the magistrate. He summoned the peasant before him and said, "I know it
all! You stole a chest of money, and it is in your cellar. Turn over the
money!"
"No, my lord," answered the peasant. "That is not true. I am as poor as
a church mouse and am an honest fellow. I've stolen nothing."
"That will be determined, old friend," replied the magistrate. "Your
wife herself said so."
"Oh, my lord, my wife is crazy."
"Go now! The court meets in two weeks. At that time we will see if your
wife is crazy."
The peasant did not feel well as he left the magistrate's estate, and
he thought of the words the old woman had spoken to him under the oak
tree. But he did not loose courage. He hurried home, took a handful of
thalers out of the chest, hitched up his wagon, and drove into town. There
he bought all the bread rolls that the bakers had in stock, so that he had
a good dozen bushels of them to load into his wagon. He drove back home
with them and scattered the rolls all about the yard, while his wife was
in the kitchen cooking something good. He threw a few pecks of them onto
the roof and laid a few of them just outside the gate as well.
Then he ran into the kitchen shouting, "Woman, you are just like all
the others! No sooner do we get a little money in our pockets than you let
the housekeeping float off into the blue! The good Lord let it rain bread
rolls outside, and you won't even bend over to pick them up!"
"Man, are you stupid?" replied the peasant's wife. "It rained
rolls?"
"It certainly did. Go see for yourself," the man replied.
So the peasant woman looked out the window, and when she saw the many
thousands of rolls in the yard she was overjoyed. She ran outside and for
the next few hours gathered them, filling three large meat tubs.
The next day the peasant said, "Listen, woman, when I was recently in
town I learned that our king by mistake has recruited new soldiers with
long pointed iron beaks. They especially pick at womenfolk with them,
sticking them to death. They are supposed to be coming through our village
today. I will tip the washtub over you, and they won't find you. They
won't find me either. I'll hide in the attic."
Filled with fear, the peasant's wife sat down, and the peasant tipped
the washtub over her. Then he went into the chicken coop, caught all the
chickens and carried them into the house, then scattered barley all around
the washtub and on top of it. Then peck, peck, peck, the chickens ate up
all the barley until not a kernel was to be found. Then they all ran back
into the yard. Then the peasant picked up the tub and said to his wife,
"Mother, they have left the village!"
"Oh, father, I was so afraid," said the peasant's wife. "Oh, how they
were knocking: peck, peck, peck! with their long iron beaks! But I didn't
make a sound, and they didn't find me."
"Thank God, they didn't find me either!" said the peasant, and that was
that.
When the two weeks had passed, the peasant and his wife were summoned
to court. The peasant denied everything, but when the judges turned
sternly to his wife, she swore by everything good and true that she had
told her neighbor the truth.
"Don't believe the woman, my lords," cried the peasant. "She is not all
there upstairs! -- And, mother, what else happened when I brought home the
chest?"
"Don't you remember, father? It was the day before the good Lord let it
rain bread rolls!"
The judges shook their heads, and the peasant said, "Am I not right?
She is crazy!"
"I am supposed to be crazy?" continued the woman eagerly. "Don't you
remember, father? It was two days before our king's new soldiers with the
long pointed iron beaks came through the village and to our farm, and
peck, peck, peck, knocked on the washtub that you had tipped over on top
of me!"
"Peasant, you are right!" said the judges. Your wife is not all there.
Go home with her and take care that she doesn't cause any harm."
Thus peasant was out of trouble, and he went back to his village with
his wife. There he let her taste his buckthorn stick, and it was so good
for her that she never gossiped again. Little by little they used the
money in the iron chest to buy one piece of land after the other next to
their farm, and finally became very wealthy. And if they didn't die, they
are still alive.