THERE was once an old man whose wife was exceedingly quarrelsome. The old man had no rest from her day or night; she nagged and nagged at him at every little trifle, but if the old man ventured to gainsay her in anything, she immediately caught up a broomstick, or something else, and chased him out of the kitchen. The old man had only one consolation; he would leave his old woman and go into the fields to set snares and bird-traps, hang them up on the branches of all the trees, and entice into his snares every bird that God has made, and so he would bring home a great booty, and give his old woman enough to last her for a whole day, or even two, and then he would for once enjoy a day in peace.
One day he went out into the fields and set his snares, and caught in them a crane. "What a stroke of luck!" thought the old man; "when I take home this crane to my old woman and we kill and roast it, she won't row me for a long time." But the crane guessed his thoughts, and said to him with a human voice: "Don't take me home and kill me, but let me go and live at liberty as before; thou shalt be dearer to me than my own father, and I will be as good as a son to thee." The old man was amazed at these words and let the crane go.
But when he returned home with empty hands, the old woman nagged at him so frightfully that he dared not go into the house, but passed the night in the courtyard beneath the staircase. Very early in the morning he went out into the fields, and was just about to lay his snares when he saw the crane of the evening before coming towards him, holding in its long beak a sort of knapsack. "Yesterday," said the crane, "thou didst set me free, and to-day I bring thee a little gift. Say 'thanks' for it. Just look at it!" It placed the knapsack on the ground and cried: "Two out of the knapsack!" And whence I know not, but out of the knapsack leaped two youths, brought oaken tables, covered them with dishes, and on them was flesh and fowl of every description. The old man ate his fill of such delicacies as it had never been his luck to see all his life even from afar; he ate and drank without stopping, and would only rise from the table when the crane cried: "Two into the knapsack!" And the tables with all the flesh and fowl were as if they had never been. "Take this knapsack," said the crane, "and give it to thy old woman." The old man thanked him and went home. But all at once the desire seized him to brag about his booty to his godmother. So he went to his godmother, inquired after the healths of herself and her three daughters, and said: "Give me a little supper, according as God has blessed thee!" The godmother put before him what was on the stove, curtseyed, and bade him fall to. But the godson turned up his nose and said to the godmother: "Thine is sorry fare! Why I have as good as that when I'm on the road. I'll stand treat to thee."--"Very well, do so." The old man immediately brought out his knapsack, placed it on the ground, and the moment he cried: "Two out of the knapsack!" two youths, whence they came I know not, leaped out of the knapsack, placed the oaken tables, covered them with carved dishes, and placed upon them all sorts of flesh and fowl, such as the godmother had never seen from the day of her birth. The godmother and her daughters ate and drank their fill, and her thoughts were not good; she meant to deprive her godson of his knapsack by subtlety. And she began flattering her godson, and said to him: "My dear little dovey godson, thou art tired to-day, wilt thou not stop and have a bath? We have everything handy to warm the bath-room for thee." The godson did not say no to a bath, hung up his knapsack in the hut, and went into the bath-room to bathe. But the godmother immediately bade her daughters sew together in hot haste just such another knapsack as the old man's, and when they had finished it, she foisted her knapsack on the old man, and took his knapsack for herself. The old man noticed nothing, and went home cheerily-cheerful; he sang songs and whistled all the way, and no sooner did he get home than he cried to his old woman: "Wife, wife, congratulate me upon the gift which I have got from the son of the crane!" The old woman looked at him and thought: "You've been drinking somewhere to-day, I know; I'll give you a lesson!" The old man when he got into the hut immediately placed his knapsack in the middle of the floor and cried: "Two out of the knapsack!" But out of the knapsack came nobody at all. A second time he cried: "Two out of the knapsack!" And again there was nobody. The old woman when she saw this let loose the full flood of her abuse upon him, flew at him like a whirlwind, caught up a wet mop on her way, and it was as much as he could do to escape from her and dash out of the hut.
The poor fellow fell a-weeping, and went to the self-same spot in the fields, thinking: "Perhaps I may meet the crane and get another such knapsack from him!" And indeed the crane was there, and was waiting for the old man with just such another knapsack. "Here is just such another knapsack, and it will be of as good service as the former one." The old man bowed to the very girdle and ran off home at full speed. But on the way a doubt occurred to him: "If now this knapsack be not quite the same as the other one, I shall get into a mess again with my old woman--and this time I shall not be able to hide my head from her even under the ground. Come along then: 'Two out of the knapsack!'" Immediately two young men leaped out of the knapsack with long sticks in their hands and began to belabour him, crying: "Don't go to thy godmother; don't be fooled by honeyed words!" And they kept on beating the old man till he bethought himself to say: "Two into the knapsack!" Then the young men hid themselves in the knapsack. "Well," thought the old man, "I cracked up the other knapsack to my godmother like a fool, but I shall not be a fool if I crack up this to her also. I wonder if she would like to filch this one from me also? She'd thank me on the other side of her mouth." So he went quite cheerily to his godmother, hung up the knapsack on the wall, and said: "Pray, heat me a bath, godmother."--"With pleasure, godson." The old man got into the bath and had a good wash, staying as long as he could. The godmother called her daughters, placed them behind the table, and said: "Two out of the knapsack." And out of the knapsack leaped the young men with the long sticks and began beating the godmother and crying: "Give the old man back his knapsack." The godmother sent her eldest daughter to the old man and said: "Call our godson out of the bath; say that these two are beating me to death." But the godson replied out of the bath: "I have not finished bathing yet!" The godmother sent her youngest daughter, but the godson replied out of the bath: "I have not washed my head yet!" But the two youths kept beating the godmother all the time and saying: "Give back the old man's knapsack!" The godmother's patience was quite tired out, and she bade her daughters bring the stolen knapsack, and throw it to the old man in the bath-room. Then the old man got out of his bath and cried: "Two into the knapsack!" And the young men with the long sticks were no more.
Then the old man took both the knapsacks and went home. He approached the house and again began crying: "Congratulate me, wife, on the gifts I have got from the son of the crane!" The old woman flared up at once and got her broom ready. But the old man when he came in, cried: "Two out of the knapsack!" and immediately the tables appeared before the old woman, and the two young men placed on the tables flesh and fowl in abundance. The old woman ate and drank her fill, and became quite mild and tender. "Well, dear little hubby, I'll thwack thee no more." But the old man after dinner took this knapsack and put it away, and unexpectedly got out the other, and placed it on the bench in the hut. The old woman wanted to see for herself how the old man's knapsack set to work, so she cried: "Two out of the knapsack!" Immediately the two young men with the long sticks popped out, and fell to beating the old woman, crying all the time: "Don't beat thy old man! Don't curse thy old man!" The old woman screeched with all her might, and called to her old man to help her. The old man took pity on her, came into the hut, and said: "Two into the knapsack!" and the two disappeared into the knapsack.
From henceforth the old man and the old woman lived together in such peace and quietness that the old man is always praising his old woman to the skies, and so this story ends.
