and am carrying about with me in my sack there.” The inn-keeper pricked
up his ears, “What in the world can that be?” thought he; “the sack
must be filled with nothing but jewels; I ought to get them cheap too,
for all good things go in threes.” When it was time for sleep, the
guest stretched himself on the bench, and laid his sack beneath him for
a pillow. When the inn-keeper thought his guest was lying in a sound
sleep, he went to him and pushed and pulled quite gently and carefully
at the sack to see if he could possibly draw it away and lay another in
its place. The turner had, however, been waiting for this for a long
time, and now just as the inn-keeper was about to give a hearty tug, he
cried, “Out of the sack, Cudgel!” Instantly the little cudgel came
forth, and fell on the inn-keeper and gave him a sound thrashing.
The host cried for mercy; but the louder he cried, so much more heavily
the cudgel beat the time on his back, until at length he fell to the
ground exhausted. Then the turner said, “If thou dost not give back the
table which covers itself, and the gold-ass, the dance shall begin
afresh.” “Oh, no,” cried the host, quite humbly, “I will gladly produce
everything, only make the accursed kobold creep back into the sack.”
Then said the apprentice, “I will let mercy take the place of justice,
but beware of getting into mischief again!” So he cried, “Into the
sack, Cudgel!” and let him have rest.
Next morning the turner went home to his father with the wishing-table,
and the gold-ass. The tailor rejoiced when he saw him once more, and
asked him likewise what he had learned in foreign parts. “Dear father,”
said he, “I have become a turner.” “A skilled trade,” said the father.
“What hast thou brought back with thee from thy travels?”
“A precious thing, dear father,” replied the son, “a cudgel in the
sack.”
“What!” cried the father, “a cudgel! That’s worth thy trouble, indeed!
From every tree thou can cut thyself one.” “But not one like this, dear
father. If I say, ‘Out of the sack, Cudgel!’ the cudgel springs out and
leads any one who means ill with me a weary dance, and never stops
until he lies on the ground and prays for fair weather. Look you, with
this cudgel have I got back the wishing-table and the gold-ass which
the thievish inn-keeper took away from my brothers. Now let them both
be sent for, and invite all our kinsmen. I will give them to eat and to
drink, and will fill their pockets with gold into the bargain.” The old
tailor would not quite believe, but nevertheless got the relatives
together. Then the turner spread a cloth in the room and led in the
gold-ass, and said to his brother, “Now, dear brother, speak to him.”
The miller said, “Bricklebrit,” and instantly the gold pieces fell down
on the cloth like a thunder-shower, and the ass did not stop until
every one of them had so much that he could carry no more. (I can see
in thy face that thou also wouldst like to be there.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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