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'

It came to pass that the master one day said to her: 'Gretel, there is
a guest coming this evening; prepare me two fowls very daintily.' 'I
will see to it, master,' answered Gretel. She killed two fowls,
scalded them, plucked them, put them on the spit, and towards evening
set them before the fire, that they might roast. The fowls began to
turn brown, and were nearly ready, but the guest had not yet arrived.
Then Gretel called out to her master: 'If the guest does not come, I
must take the fowls away from the fire, but it will be a sin and a
shame if they are not eaten the moment they are at their juiciest.'
The master said: 'I will run myself, and fetch the guest.' When the
master had turned his back, Gretel laid the spit with the fowls on one
side, and thought: 'Standing so long by the fire there, makes one
sweat and thirsty; who knows when they will come? Meanwhile, I will
run into the cellar, and take a drink.' She ran down, set a jug, said:
'God bless it for you, Gretel,' and took a good drink, and thought
that wine should flow on, and should not be interrupted, and took yet
another hearty draught.

Then she went and put the fowls down again to the fire, basted them,
and drove the spit merrily round. But as the roast meat smelt so good,
Gretel thought: 'Something might be wrong, it ought to be tasted!' She
touched it with her finger, and said: 'Ah! how good fowls are! It
certainly is a sin and a shame that they are not eaten at the right
time!' She ran to the window, to see if the master was not coming with
his guest, but she saw no one, and went back to the fowls and thought:
'One of the wings is burning! I had better take it off and eat it.' So
she cut it off, ate it, and enjoyed it, and when she had done, she
thought: 'The other must go down too, or else master will observe that
something is missing.' When the two wings were eaten, she went and
looked for her master, and did not see him. It suddenly occurred to
her: 'Who knows? They are perhaps not coming at all, and have turned
in somewhere.' Then she said: 'Well, Gretel, enjoy yourself, one fowl
has been cut into, take another drink, and eat it up entirely; when it
is eaten you will have some peace, why should God's good gifts be
spoilt?' So she ran into the cellar again, took an enormous drink and
ate up the one chicken in great glee. When one of the chickens was
swallowed down, and still her master did not come, Gretel looked at
the other and said: 'What one is, the other should be likewise, the
two go together; what's right for the one is right for the other; I
think if I were to take another draught it would do me no harm.' So
she took another hearty drink, and let the second chicken follow the
first.

While she was making the most of it, her master came and cried: 'Hurry
up, Gretel, the guest is coming directly after me!' 'Yes, sir, I will
soon serve up,' answered Gretel. Meantime the master looked to see
what the table was properly laid, and took the great knife, wherewith

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