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Title: Grimm's Fairy Tales: Frederick and Catherine
Date of first publication: 1930
Author: Jacob Grimm (1785-1863)
Author: Wilhelm Grimm (1786-1859)
Illustrator: Noel Pocock (1880-1955)
Date first posted: February 21, 2014
Date last updated: February 21, 2014
Faded Page eBook #20140215

This ebook was produced by: David Edwards, Delphine Lettau
& the Online Distributed Proofreading Canada Team at http://www.pgdpcanada.net

(This file was produced from images generously made available by
The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries).




Frederick and Catherine


There was once a man called Frederick: he had a
wife whose name was Catherine, and they had not
long been married. One day Frederick said, "Kate! I
am going to work in the fields; when I come back I shall
be hungry, so let me have something nice cooked, and a
good draught of ale." "Very well," said she, "it shall all
be ready." When dinner-time drew nigh, Catherine took
a nice steak, which was all the meat she had, and put it on
the fire to fry. The steak soon began to look brown, and
to crackle in the pan; and Catherine stood by with a fork
and turned it: then she said to herself, "The steak is
almost ready, I may as well go to the cellar for the ale."
So she left the pan on the fire, and took a large jug and
went into the cellar and tapped the ale cask. The beer
ran into the jug, and Catherine stood looking on. At last
it popped into her head, "The dog is not shut up--he may
be running away with the steak; that's well thought of."
So up she ran from the cellar; and sure enough the rascally
cur had got the steak in his mouth, and was making off
with it.

Away ran Catherine, and away ran the dog across the
field: but he ran faster than she, and stuck close to the
steak. "It's all gone, and 'what can't be cured must be
endured,'" said Catherine. So she turned round; and as
she had run a good way and was tired, she walked home
leisurely to cool herself.

Now all this time the ale was running too, for Catherine
had not turned the cock; and when the jug was full the
liquor ran upon the floor till the cask was empty. When
she got to the cellar stairs she saw what had happened.
"My stars!" said she, "what shall I do to keep Frederick
from seeing all this slopping about?" So she thought a
while; and at last remembered that there was a sack of
fine meal bought at the last fair, and that if she sprinkled
this over the floor it would suck up the ale nicely. "What
a lucky thing," said she, "that we kept that meal! we have
now a good use for it." So away she went for it: but she
managed to set it down just upon the great jug full of
beer, and upset it; and thus all the ale that had been saved
was set swimming on the floor also. "Ah! well," said she,
"when one goes, another may as well follow." Then she
strewed the meal all about the cellar, and was quite pleased
with her cleverness, and said, "How very neat and clean it
looks!"

At noon Frederick came home. "Now, wife," cried he,
"what have you for dinner?" "O Frederick!" answered
she, "I was cooking you a steak; but while I went down
to draw the ale, the dog ran away with it; and while I ran
after him, the ale all ran out; and when I went to dry up
the ale with the sack of meal that we got at the fair, I
upset the jug: but the cellar is now quite dry, and looks
so clean!" "Kate, Kate," said he, "how could you do all
this? Why did you leave the steak to fry, and the ale to
run, and then spoil all the meal?" "Why, Frederick,"
said she, "I did not know I was doing wrong, you should
have told me before."

The husband thought to himself, If my wife manages
matters thus, I must look sharp myself. Now he had a
good deal of gold in the house: so he said to Catherine,
"What pretty yellow buttons these are! I shall put them
into a box and bury them in the garden; but take care that
you never go near or meddle with them." "No, Frederick,"
said she, "that I never will." As soon as he was
gone, there came by some pedlars with earthenware plates
and dishes, and they asked her whether she would buy.
"Oh dear me, I should like to buy very much, but I have
no money: if you had any use for yellow buttons, I might
deal with you." "Yellow buttons!" said they: "let us have
a look at them." "Go into the garden, and dig where I
tell you, and you will find the yellow buttons: I dare not
go myself." So the rogues went: and when they found
what these yellow buttons were, they took them all away,
and left her plenty of plates and dishes. Then she set
them all about the house for a show: and when Frederick
came back, he cried out, "Kate, what have you been doing?"
"See," said she, "I have bought all these with your
yellow buttons: but I did not touch them myself; the
pedlars went themselves and dug them up." "Wife, wife,"
said Frederick, "what a pretty piece of work you have
made! those yellow buttons were all my money: how came
you to do such a thing?" "Why," answered she, "I did
not know there was any harm in it; you should have told
me."

Catherine stood musing for a while, and at last said to
her husband, "Hark ye, Frederick, we will soon get the
gold back: let us run after the thieves." "Well, we will
try," answered he; "but take some butter and cheese with
you, that we may have something to eat by the way."
"Very well," said she; and they set out: and as Frederick
walked the fastest, he left his wife some way behind. "It
does not matter," thought she: "when we turn back, I shall
be so much nearer home than he."

Presently she came to the top of a hill; down the side
of which there was a road so narrow that the cart-wheels
always chafed the trees on each side as they passed. "Ah,
see now," said she, "how they have bruised and wounded
those poor trees; they will never get well." So she took
pity on them, and made use of the butter to grease them
all, so that the wheels might not hurt them so much.
While she was doing this kind office, one of her cheeses fell
out of the basket, and rolled down the hill. Catherine
looked, but could not see where it was gone; so she said,
"Well, I suppose the other will go the same way and find
you; he has younger legs than I have." Then she rolled
the other cheese after it; and away it went, nobody knows
where, down the hill. But she said she supposed they knew
the road, and would follow her, and she could not stay
there all day waiting for them.

At last she overtook Frederick, who desired her to give
him something to eat. Then she gave him the dry bread.
"Where are the butter and cheese?" said he. "Oh!" answered
she, "I used the butter to grease those poor trees
that the wheels chafed so: and one of the cheeses ran away,
so I sent the other after it to find it, and I suppose they
are both on the road together somewhere." "What a goose
you are to do such silly things!" said the husband. "How
can you say so?" said she; "I am sure you never told me
not."

They ate the dry bread together; and Frederick said,
"Kate, I hope you locked the door safe when you came
away." "No," answered she, "you did not tell me." "Then
go home, and do it now before we go any further," said
Frederick, "and bring with you something to eat."

Catherine did as he told her, and thought to herself
by the way, "Frederick wants something to eat; but I don't
think he is very fond of butter and cheese: I'll bring him
a bag of fine nuts, and the vinegar, for I have often seen
him take some."

[Illustration: "When Frederick and Catherine came down, there they found
all their money safe and sound."]

When she reached home, she bolted the back door, but
the front door she took off the hinges, and said, "Frederick
told me to lock the door, but surely it can nowhere be so
safe as if I take it with me." So she took her time by the
way: and when she overtook her husband she cried out,
"There, Frederick, there is the door itself, now you may
watch it as carefully as you please." "Alas! alas!" said
he, "what a clever wife I have! I sent you to make the
house fast, and you take the door away, so that everybody
may go in and out as they please:--however, as you have
brought the door, you shall carry it about with you for
your pains." "Very well," answered she, "I'll carry the
door; but I'll not carry the nuts and vinegar bottle also,--that
would be too much of a load; so, if you please, I'll
fasten them to the door."

Frederick of course made no objection to that plan,
and they set off into the wood to look for the thieves;
but they could not find them: and when it grew dark, they
climbed up into a tree to spend the night there. Scarcely
were they up, than who should come by but the very rogues
they were looking for. They were in truth great rascals,
and belonged to that class of people who find things before
they are lost: they were tired; so they sat down and made
a fire under the very tree where Frederick and Catherine
were. Frederick slipped down on the other side, and
picked up some stones. Then he climbed up again, and
tried to hit the thieves on the head with them: but they
only said, "It must be near morning, for the wind shakes
the fir-apples down."

Catherine, who had the door on her shoulder, began
to be very tired; but she thought it was the nuts upon it
that were so heavy: so she said softly, "Frederick, I must
let the nuts go." "No," answered he, "not now, they will
discover us." "I can't help that, they must go." "Well
then, make haste and throw them down, if you will."
Then away rattled the nuts down among the boughs; and
one of the thieves cried, "Bless me it is hailing."

A little while after, Catherine thought the door was
still very heavy: so she whispered to Frederick, "I must
throw the vinegar down." "Pray don't," answered he,
"they will discover us." "I can't help that," said she, "go
it must." So she poured all the vinegar down; and the
thieves said, "What a heavy dew there is!"

At last it popped into Catherine's head that it was
the door itself that was so heavy all the time: so she whispered
Frederick, "I must throw the door down soon."
But he begged and prayed her not to do so, for he was
sure it would betray them. "Here goes, however," said
she: and down went the door with such a clatter upon the
thieves, that they cried out "Murder!" and not knowing
what was coming, ran away as fast as they could, and left
all the gold. So when Frederick and Catherine came
down, there they found all their money safe and sound.


[The end of _Grimm's Fairy Tales: Frederick and Catherine_
by the Brothers Grimm]