workmen to put five more sacks into the well. They were all thrown in, and it was all no good: he had simply wasted all of his malt.
And when the feast had passed by the water in the poor peasant’s well was as pure as ever, just as if nothing had happened.
Once again the old man came to the poor peasant and said: “Listen, master, have you sown your corn this year?”
“No, grandfather, I have not sown a single grain.”
“Well, now go to the rich man and ask him for three pecks of every kind of corn. We will eat with you in the fields, and we will then sow the corn.”
“How shall we sow it now?” the poor man answered. “It is now the very midst of winter and the frost is crackling.”
“Never mind about that. Go and do as I say. I brewed you beer, and I will sow you corn.”
So the poor man went once more to the rich peasant and asked him as a debt for three pecks of every kind of corn. When he came back he told his aged guest:
“Here it all is, grandfather.”
So they went outside to the fields, scattered it according to its nature on the peasant’s lots; and lo and behold! they went and threw all the grains on the white snow—every single grain.
The old man said to the peasant: “Go home and wait until the summer; you will have bread enough.”
So the poor man went to his hut and became the laughingstock of the village for sowing his corn in the winter. “Look at him! What a fool he is! He has forgotten when he ought to sow: he didn’t think of sowing in the autumn.” He never minded, but waited for the spring, and the warm days came, and the snow melted, and the grain sprouts appeared.
“Come now,” the poor man said, “I will go and see what my stretch of land looks like.” So he went to his stretch of land and saw such splendid blades of corn, at which any soul might rejoice. And on all the acres of the others it was not half as fine. “Glory be to God!” the peasant cried; “I am now looking up!”
Soon the time of harvest came by, and all good folk began to gather their corn, and the old man also went and busied himself, and called his wife to help him. And he could not get through, but had to summon for the harvesting all the husbandmen, and to give half of his corn away; and all the peasants were astonished at the poor man, for he had not sown his land, but had scattered the seeds in the winter and his corn had been splendid. The poor peasant had put his affairs straight and had managed to live without any trouble; and whatever he required for his household, he went into the town, sold quarters and quarters of corn, and bought whatever he required, and repaid the rich peasant his debt in full.
Then the rich peasant began to think: “Heigh-ho! I shall also begin sowing in the winter; possibly I shall have corn as fine.” So he waited to the very day on which the poor peasant in the previous year had sown his corn, went and took from his bins quarters of different sorts of corn, went out into the fields and scattered it all on the snow. He covered the fields entirely, but a storm arose at night, and mighty winds blew, and wafted all the corn from his land away on to the other fields.
Then there came a fine spring, and the rich man went to his fields and saw them bare, and saw that his own land was naked and waste; there was not a single blade that appeared, and on all the other strips where there had been no ploughing and no sowing, you never saw such a fine green crop! Then the rich man began to think: “Lord, I have spent much on corn, and it has all been in vain, and my debtors have all neither ploughed nor sown, and their corn grows of itself. Needs I must be a great sinner!”
Sorrow
Once upon a time, in a wretched village, there lived two peasants, who were own brothers. One was poor, however, and the other rich. The rich man settled in the town, built himself a fine house, and became a merchant. Sometimes the poor brother had not a crumb of bread and the children (each of whom was smaller than the others) cried and begged for something to eat. From morning to evening the peasant trudged away like a fish on ice, but it was all of no good.
One day he said to his wife: “I am going into the town, in order to beg my brother to help me.”
So he came to the rich man and asked him: “Brother, help me in my sorrow, for my wife and children sit at home without any bread and are starving.”
“If you will work for me this week I will help you.”
What was the poor fellow to do? He set to work, cleaned out the courtyard, groomed the horses, carried the water, hewed the wood. When the week had gone by the rich man gave him a loaf of bread. “There, you have a reward for your pains.”
“I thank you for it,” said the poor man, and bowed down, and was going home.
“Stay,” the rich brother said to him: “Come with your wife tomorrow and be my guests. Tomorrow is my name-day.”
“Oh, brother, how can I? As you know, merchants who wear boots and furs come to see you, whilst I have only bast shoes, and I only have my grey coat.”
“Never mind! Come tomorrow; I shall still have room for you.”
“Good brother! I will come.”
So the poor man went home, gave his wife the loaf of bread, and said: “Listen, wife. Tomorrow you and I
