When the tailor heard that, he was shocked, and saw clearly that he had
driven away his three sons without cause. “Wait, thou ungrateful
creature,” cried he, “it is not enough to drive thee forth, I will mark
thee so that thou wilt no more dare to show thyself amongst honest
tailors.” In great haste he ran upstairs, fetched his razor, lathered
the goat’s head, and shaved her as clean as the palm of his hand. And
as the yard-measure would have been too good for her, he brought the
horsewhip, and gave her such cuts with it that she ran away in violent
haste.
When the tailor was thus left quite alone in his house he fell into
great grief, and would gladly have had his sons back again, but no one
knew whither they were gone. The eldest had apprenticed himself to a
joiner, and learnt industriously and indefatigably, and when the time
came for him to go travelling, his master presented him with a little
table which had no particular appearance, and was made of common wood,
but it had one good property; if anyone set it out, and said, “Little
table, spread thyself,” the good little table was at once covered with
a clean little cloth, and a plate was there, and a knife and fork
beside it, and dishes with boiled meats and roasted meats, as many as
there was room for, and a great glass of red wine shone so that it made
the heart glad. The young journeyman thought, “With this thou hast
enough for thy whole life,” and went joyously about the world and never
troubled himself at all whether an inn was good or bad, or if anything
was to be found in it or not. When it suited him he did not enter an
inn at all, but either on the plain, in a wood, a meadow, or wherever
he fancied, he took his little table off his back, set it down before
him, and said, “Cover thyself,” and then everything appeared that his
heart desired. At length he took it into his head to go back to his
father, whose anger would now be appeased, and who would now willingly
receive him with his wishing-table. It came to pass that on his way
home, he came one evening to an inn which was filled with guests. They
bade him welcome, and invited him to sit and eat with them, for
otherwise he would have difficulty in getting anything. “No,” answered
the joiner, “I will not take the few bites out of your mouths; rather
than that, you shall be my guests.” They laughed, and thought he was
jesting with them; he, however, placed his wooden table in the middle
of the room, and said, “Little table, cover thyself.” Instantly it was
covered with food, so good that the host could never have procured it,
and the smell of it ascended pleasantly to the nostrils of the guests.
“Fall to, dear friends,” said the joiner; and the guests when they saw
that he meant it, did not need to be asked twice, but drew near, pulled
out their knives and attacked it valiantly. And what surprised them the
most was that when a dish became empty, a full one instantly took its
place of its own accord.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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