The Brave Tailor

(With acknowledgement to the Brothers Grimm)

One summer's morning a little tailor was sitting on her table by the window; she was in good spirits, and sewed with all her might. Then came a peasant man down the street crying, "Good jams, cheap! Good jams, cheap!" This rang pleasantly in the tailor's ears; she stretched her delicate head out of the window, and called, "Come up here, dear man; here you will get rid of your goods." The man came up the many steps to the tailor with his heavy basket, and she made him unpack all of the pots for her. She inspected all of them, lifted them up, put her nose to them, and at length said, "The jam seems to me to be good, so weigh me out four ounces, dear man, and if it is five I won't complain."

The man who had hoped to find a good sale, gave her what she desired, but went away quite angry and grumbling.

"Now, God bless the jam to my use," cried the little tailor, "and give me health and strength;" so she brought the bread out of the cupboard, cut herself a piece right across the loaf and spread the jam over it. "This will taste delicious," said she, "but I will just finish the jacket before I take a bite." She laid the bread near herself, sewed on, and in her joy, made bigger and bigger stitches. In the meantime the smell of the sweet jam ascended to the wall, where the flies were sitting in great numbers, that they were attracted and descended on it in hosts.

"Hola! who invited you?" said the little tailor and drove the unbidden guests away. The flies, however, who understood no Spanish, would not be turned away, but came back again in ever-increasing companies. Then the little tailor at last lost all patience, and got a bit of cloth from the hole under her work-table, and saying, "Wait, and I will give it to you," struck it mercilessly on them. When she drew it away and counted, there lay before her no fewer than seven, dead and with legs stretched out.

"Art you a heroine of that sort?" said she, and could not help admiring her own bravery. "The whole town shall know of this!" And the little tailor hastened to cut herself a girdle, stitched it, and embroidered on it in large letters, "Seven at one stroke!"

"What, the town!" she continued, "the whole world shall hear of it!" and her heart wagged with joy like a lamb's tail. The tailor put on the girdle, and resolved to go forth into the world, because she thought her workshop was too small for her valour. Before she went away, she sought about in the house to see if there was anything which she could take with her; however, she found nothing but an old cheese, and that she put in her pocket. In front of the door she observed a bird which had caught itself in the thicket. She freed it gently and put it in the pocket with the cheese. Now she took to the road boldly, and as she was light and nimble, she felt no fatigue. The road led her up a mountain, and when she had reached the highest point of it, there sat a powerful giant looking about him quite comfortably.

The little tailor went bravely up, spoke to him, and said, "Good day, comrade, sitting there, overlooking the wide-spread world! I am just on my way thither, and want to try my luck. Do you have an inclination to go with me?" The giant looked contemptuously at the tailor, and said, "You ragamuffin! You miserable creature!"