Harry was lazy, and although he had nothing else to do but
drive his goat daily to pasture, he nevertheless groaned when
he went home after his day's work was done. "It is indeed a
heavy burden," said he, "and a wearisome employment to drive
a goat into the field this way year after year, till late into the
autumn! If one could but lie down and sleep, but no, one
must have one's eyes open lest it hurts the young trees, or
squeezes itself through the hedge into a garden, or runs away
altogether. How can one have any rest, or peace of one's life?"
He seated himself, collected his thoughts, and considered how he
could set his shoulders free from this burden. For a long time
all thinking was to no purpose, but suddenly it was as if scales
fell from his eyes. "I know what I will do," he cried, "I will marry
fat Trina who has also a goat, and can take mine out with hers,
and then I shall have no more need to trouble myself."
So Harry got up, set his weary legs in motion, and went right
across the street, for it was no farther, to where the parents of
fat Trina lived, and asked for their industrious and virtuous
daughter in marriage. The parents did not reflect long. "Birds
of a feather, flock together," they thought, and consented.
So fat Trina became Harry's wife, and led out both the goats.
Harry had a good time of it, and had no work that he required
to rest from but his own idleness. He only went out with her
now and then, and said, "I merely do it that I may afterwards
enjoy rest more, otherwise one loses all feeling for it."
But fat Trina was no less idle. "Dear Harry," said she one day,
"why should we make our lives so toilsome when there is no need
for it, and thus ruin the best days of our youth? Would it not
be better for us to give the two goats which disturb us every
morning in our sweetest sleep with their bleating, to our neighbor,
and he will give us a beehive for them. We will put the beehive in
a sunny place behind the house, and trouble ourselves no more
about it. Bees do not require to be taken care of, or driven into
the field; they fly out and find the way home again for themselves,
and collect honey without giving the very least trouble." "Thou hast
spoken like a sensible woman," replied Harry. "We will carry out thy
proposal without delay, and besides all that, honey tastes better and
nourishes one better than goat's milk, and it can be kept longer too."
The neighbor willingly gave a beehive for the two goats. The bees
flew in and out from early morning till late evening without ever
tiring, and filled the hive with the most beautiful honey, so that
in autumn Harry was able to take a whole pitcherful out of it.
They placed the jug on a board which was fixed to the wall of
their bed-room, and as they were afraid that it might be stolen
from them, or that the mice might find it, Trina brought in a
stout hazel-stick and put it beside her bed, so that without
unnecessary getting up she might reach it with her hand, and
drive away the uninvited guests.
Lazy Harry did not like to leave his bed before noon. "He who
rises early," said he, "wastes his substance."
One morning when he was still lying amongst the feathers in
broad daylight, resting after his long sleep, he said to his wife,
"Women are fond of sweet things, and thou art always tasting
the honey in private; it will be better for us to exchange it for a
goose with a young gosling, before thou eatest up the whole of
it." "But," answered Trina, "not before we have a child to take
care of them! Am I to worry myself with the little geese, and
spend all my strength on them to no purpose." "Dost thou think,"
said Harry, "that the youngster will look after geese? Now-a-days
children no longer obey, they do according to their own fancy,
because they consider themselves cleverer than their parents, just
like that lad who was sent to seek the cow and chased three blackbirds."
"Oh," replied Trina, "this one shall fare badly if he does not do what
I say! I will take a stick and belabour his skin for him with more blows
than I can count. Look, Harry," cried she in her zeal, and seized the
stick which she had to drive the mice away with, "Look, this is the way
I will fall on him!" She reached her arm out to strike, but unhappily hit
the honey-pitcher above the bed. The pitcher struck against the wall and
fell down in fragments, and the fine honey streamed down on the ground.
"There lie the goose and the young gosling," said Harry, "and want no looking
after. But it is lucky that the pitcher did not fall on my head. We have all
reason to be satisfied with our lot." And then as he saw that there was still
some honey in one of the fragments he stretched out his hand for it, and said
quite gaily, "The remains, my wife, we will still eat with a relish, and we will
rest a little after the fright we have had. What matters if we do get up a little
later the day is always long enough." "Yes," answered Trina, "we shall always
get to the end of it at the proper time. Dost thou know that the snail was once
asked to a wedding and set out to go, but arrived at the christening. In front of
the house it fell over the fence, and said, 'Speed does no good.'"
