Tischlein deck dich (1956)

The woodsman steps out in front of his house and says that he knows both good and bad people. He then tells what happened to three brothers: Once upon a time, there was a tailor who had three sons. He had a very special affection for his goat, which mattered more to him than his children. Because it had caught a cold, he even put it to bed, much to the annoyance of his customers. He also involved his sons in looking after the animal, whose well-being was his foremost concern. When Hans, the eldest son, returned from grazing with the goat, it answered the tailor’s question about whether it was full: “How could I be full? I only jumped over little ditches and didn’t find a single little leaf.” Hans contradicted it and told his father that the goat was lying; it had said to him, “I’m so full, I don’t want a leaf, maa.” But the tailor was furious, didn’t believe Hans, and sent him away, telling him to go where the pepper grows. Disappointed and completely penniless, the boy ran ever deeper into the dark forest. He came to a house and introduced himself to the woodsman as Hans with the red cap. He said he hadn’t learned anything because his father had said he was too stupid to become a tailor. The woodsman asked Hans what he would like to become, and when Hans said a carpenter, the woodsman taught him the trade. Hans proved very skillful and became a good carpenter. Only sometimes, when he played his flute, he grew sad and thought of his father, who had treated him so unjustly, and of his brothers—Michel with the green cap and Klaus with the blue cap—and of the deceitful goat. The goat did exactly the same thing to Michel, which led the tailor to angrily drive away his second son as well. By then, Hans was ready to say goodbye to the woodsman, who gave him a “little table” as a parting gift, a so-called “table, set yourself,” which would fill with the most delicious food whenever he called out to it. When he got hungry on the way, he tried out his gift straight away, and the little table filled abundantly with food and drink. Meanwhile, Michel, driven away by his father, was terribly hungry. As he sat by the river playing his harmonica, the woodsman spoke to him, and Michel told him that he would like to become a miller. And so it came to pass. When Michel had finished his training, the woodsman gave him a donkey as a parting gift. The woodsman told him it was a very special little donkey, because if he called out, “Little donkey, or golden donkey, stretch out,” the animal would drop gold coins. Michel was curious and wanted to know whether the woodsman had promised him too much. He spread out his cloth, and sure enough, the animal responded to the magic words. In the meantime, Hans stopped at a village inn and freely told the innkeeper what his little table could do, demonstrating it at once. The innkeeper and his wife watched in amazement: as soon as Hans took something from the table, it filled up again. The innkeepers came up with a plan to switch the table for one that looked almost exactly the same. Suspecting nothing, Hans set off the next day with the fake table. Soon after, his brother Michel arrived at the inn with his donkey. He too immediately announced that his donkey was a very special animal. The innkeepers concluded that there must be some connection between the boy with the red cap and the boy with the green cap. Then they looked through the keyhole and saw the donkey spewing gold. So they swapped their old donkey for the golden one, and Michel set off with the fake donkey, none the wiser. The innkeepers rubbed their hands together excitedly, anticipating the wealth to come. Klaus, the tailor’s youngest son, was also accused by his father of lying, but he ran away of his own accord to look for his brothers. He played neither the flute nor the harmonica, but he was an excellent whistler. So he too found his way to the woodsman, where he learned the trade of a turner. Meanwhile, the tailor discovered that it was not his sons but the goat that had been lying, and sent the goat away. When it was time for Klaus to say goodbye to the woodsman, the woodsman handed him a cudgel. Seeing the boy’s bewildered expression, he explained that it was a very special cudgel. If Klaus said to it, “Cudgel, out of the sack,” it would spring out quickly and set upon people, so they would feel it for a long time. Only when he said, “Cudgel, back in the sack,” would it obediently return there. The woodsman also told Klaus what he had given his brothers and that, because they hadn’t been careful, their gifts had been taken from them. Klaus too came to the inn in question and looked through the window, where he saw the innkeepers speak to the “table, set yourself,” and immediately understood what had happened. Klaus asked after his brothers, the ones with the red and green caps. The innkeepers, however, claimed to know nothing. Naturally, they had noticed that Klaus was carrying a mysterious sack which, he had said, contained something good for body and mind. The innkeepers thought it must be some special medicine that kept people from falling ill. So, when the innkeeper thought the boy was asleep, he crept into his room. As he started meddling with the sack, Klaus called out, “Cudgel, out of the sack,” and the innkeeper was in for a very bad time. Klaus demanded that the table and the golden donkey be returned. When the innkeeper’s wife tried to refuse, the cudgel went to work on her too. Just as the tailor was once again bitterly regretting the great injustice he had done his sons, Hans and Michel suddenly appeared in the doorway and told him about their very special gifts. Excitedly, their father ran through the village, inviting everyone to come and admire his sons’ gifts. But the table did not set itself, and the donkey did not spit out gold coins. This time, the father stood up for his sons. Then Klaus arrived with the real table and the golden donkey, and his cudgel out of the sack. This time the magic worked, and the goat, which had set everything in motion, turned up again too.