The Biter Bit

THE BITER BIT

Once upon a time there lived a man called Simon, who was very rich, but

at the same time as stingy and miserly as he could be. He had a

housekeeper called Nina, a clever capable woman, and as she did her work

carefully and conscientiously, her master had the greatest respect for

her.

In his young days Simon had been one of the gayest and most active

youths of the neighbourhood, but as he grew old and stiff he found it

very difficult to walk, and his faithful servant urged him to get a

horse so as to save his poor old bones. At last Simon gave way to the

request and persuasive eloquence of his housekeeper, and betook himself

one day to the market where he had seen a mule, which he thought would

just suit him, and which he bought for seven gold pieces.

Now it happened that there were three merry rascals hanging about the

market-place, who much preferred living on other people's goods to

working for their own living. As soon as they saw that Simon had bought

a mule, one of them said to his two boon companions, 'My friends, this

mule must be ours before we are many hours older.'

'But how shall we manage it,' asked one of them.

'We must all three station ourselves at different intervals along the

old man's homeward way, and must each in his turn declare that the mule

he has bought is a donkey. If we only stick to it you'll see the mule

will soon be ours.' This proposal quite satisfied the others, and they

all separated as they had agreed.

Now when Simon came by, the first rogue said to him, 'God bless you, my

fine gentleman.'

'Thanks for your courtesy,' replied Simon.

'Where have you been?' asked the thief.

'To the market,' was the reply.

'And what did you buy there?' continued the rogue.

'This mule.'

'Which mule?'

'The one I'm sitting upon, to be sure,' replied Simon.

'Are you in earnest, or only joking?'

'What do you mean?'

'Because it seems to me you've got hold of a donkey, and not of a mule.'

[Illustration]

'A donkey? Rubbish!' screamed Simon, and without another word he rode on

his way. After a few hundred yards he met the second confederate, who

addressed him, 'Good day, dear sir, where are you coming from?'

'From the market,' answered Simon.

'Did things go pretty cheap?' asked the other.

'I should just think so,' said Simon.

'And did you make any good bargain yourself?'

'I bought this mule on which you see me.'

'Is it possible that you really bought that beast for a mule?'

'Why certainly.'

'But, good heavens, it's nothing but a donkey!'

'A donkey!' repeated Simon, 'you don't mean to say so; if a single

other person tells me that, I'll make him a present of the wretched

animal.'

With these words he continued his way, and very soon met the third

knave, who said to him, 'God bless you, sir; are you by any chance

coming from the market?'

'Yes, I am,' replied Simon.

'And what bargain did you drive there?' asked the cunning fellow.

'I bought this mule on which I am riding.'

'A mule! Are you speaking seriously, or do you wish to make a fool of

me?'

'I'm speaking in sober earnest,' said Simon; 'it wouldn't occur to me to

make a joke of it.'

'Oh, my poor friend,' cried the rascal, 'don't you see that is a donkey

and not a mule? you have been taken in by some wretched cheats.'

'You are the third person in the last two hours who has told me the same

thing,' said Simon, 'but I couldn't believe it,' and dismounting from

the mule he spoke: 'Keep the animal, I make you a present of it.' The

rascal took the beast, thanked him kindly, and rode on to join his

comrades, while Simon continued his journey on foot.

As soon as the old man got home, he told his housekeeper that he had

bought a beast under the belief that it was a mule, but that it had

turned out to be a donkey--at least, so he had been assured by several

people he had met on the road, and that in disgust he had at last given

it away.

'Oh, you simpleton!' cried Nina; 'didn't you see that they were only

playing you a trick? Really, I thought you'd have had more gumption than

that; they wouldn't have taken me in in that way.'

'Never mind,' replied Simon, 'I'll play them one worth two of that; for

depend upon it they won't be contented with having got the donkey out of

me, but they'll try by some new dodge to get something more, or I'm much

mistaken.'

Now there lived in the village not far from Simon's house, a peasant who

had two goats, so alike in every respect that it was impossible to

distinguish one from the other. Simon bought them both, paid as small a

price as he could for them, and leading them home with him, he told Nina

to prepare a good meal, as he was going to invite some friends to

dinner. He ordered her to roast some veal, and to boil a pair of

chickens, and gave her some herbs to make a good savoury, and told her

to bake the best tart she could make. Then he took one of the goats and

tied it to a post in the courtyard, and gave it some grass to eat; but

he bound a cord round the neck of the other goat and led it to the

market.

Hardly had he arrived there, than the three gentlemen who had got his

mule perceived him, and coming up to him said: 'Welcome, Mr. Simon, what

brings you here; are you on the look out for a bargain?'

'I've come to get some provisions,' he answered, 'because some friends

are coming to dine with me to-day, and it would give me much pleasure if

you were to honour me with your company also.'

The accomplices willingly accepted this invitation; and after Simon had

made all his purchases, he tied them on to the goat's back, and said to

it, in the presence of the three cheats, 'Go home now, and tell Nina to

roast the veal, and boil the chickens, and tell her to prepare a savoury

with herbs, and to bake the best tart she can make. Have you followed

me? Then go, and Heaven's blessing go with you.'

As soon as it felt itself free, the laden goat trotted off as quickly as

it could, and to this day nobody knows what became of it. But Simon,

after wandering about the market for some time with his three friends

and some others he had picked up, returned home to his house.

When he and his guests entered the courtyard, they noticed the goat tied

to the post quietly chewing the cud. They were not a little astonished

at this, for of course they thought it was the same goat that Simon had

sent home laden with provisions. As soon as they reached the house Mr.

Simon said to his housekeeper, 'Well, Nina, have you done what I told

the goat to tell you to do?' The artful woman, who at once understood

her master, answered, 'Certainly I have. The veal is roasted, and the

chickens boiled.'

'That's all right,' said Simon.

When the three rogues saw the cooked meats, and the tart in the oven,

and heard Nina's words, they were nearly beside themselves with

amazement, and began to consult at once how they were to get the goat

into their own possession. At last, towards the end of the meal, having

sought in vain for some cunning dodge to get the goat away from Mr.

Simon, one of them said to him, 'My worthy host, you must sell your goat

to us.'

Simon replied that he was most unwilling to part with the creature, as

no amount of money would make up to him for its loss; still, if they

were quite set on it, he would let them have the goat for fifty gold

pieces.

The knaves, who thought they were doing a capital piece of business,

paid down the fifty gold pieces at once, and left the house quite

happily, leading the goat with them. When they got home they said to

their wives, 'You needn't begin to cook the dinner to-morrow till we

send the provisions home.'

The following day they went to the market and bought chickens and other

eatables, and after they had packed them on the back of the goat (which

they had brought with them), they told it all the dishes they wished

their wives to prepare. As soon as the goat felt itself free, it ran as

quickly as it could, and was very soon lost to sight, and, as far as I

know, was never heard of again.

When the dinner hour approached all three went home and asked their

wives if the goat had returned with the necessary provisions, and had

told them what they wished prepared for their meal.

'Oh, you fools and blockheads!' cried their wives, 'how could you ever

believe for a moment that a goat would do the work of a servant-maid?

You have been finely deceived for once in a way. Of course, if you are

always taking in other people, your turn to be taken in comes too, and

this time you've been made to look pretty foolish.'

When the three comrades saw that Mr. Simon had got the better of them,

and done them out of fifty gold pieces, they flew into such a rage that

they made up their minds to kill him, and, seizing their weapons for

this purpose, went to his house.

But the sly old man, who was terrified for his life that the three

rogues might do him some harm, was on his guard, and said to his

housekeeper, 'Nina, take this bladder, which is filled with blood, and

hide it under your cloak; then when these thieves come I'll lay all the

blame on you, and will pretend to be so angry with you that I will run

at you with my knife, and pierce the bladder with it; then you must fall

on the ground as if you were dead, and leave the rest to me.'

Hardly had Simon said these words when the three rogues appeared and

fell on him to kill him.

'My friends,' called out Simon to them, 'what do you accuse me of? I am

in no way to blame; perhaps my housekeeper has done you some injury of

which I know nothing.' And with these words, he turned on Nina with his

knife, and stuck it right into her, so that he pierced the bladder

filled with blood. Instantly the housekeeper fell down as if she were

dead, and the blood streamed all over the ground.

Simon then pretended to be seized with remorse at the sight of this

dreadful catastrophe, and cried out in a loud voice, 'Unhappy wretch

that I am! What have I done? Like a madman I have killed the woman who

is the prop and stay of my old age. How could I ever go on living

without her?' Then he seized a pipe, and when he had blown into it for

some time Nina sprang up alive and well.

The rogues were more amazed than ever; they forgot their anger, and

buying the pipe for two hundred gold pieces, they went joyfully home.

Not long after this one of them quarrelled with his wife, and in his

rage he thrust his knife into her breast so that she fell dead on the

ground. Then he took Simon's pipe and blew into it with all his might,

in the hopes of calling his wife back to life. But he blew in vain, for

the poor soul was as dead as a door-nail.

When one of his comrades heard what had happened, he said, 'You

blockhead, you can't have done it properly; just let me have a try,' and

with these words he seized his wife by the roots of her hair, cut her

throat with a razor, and then took the pipe and blew into it with all

his might but he couldn't bring her back to life. The same thing

happened to the third rogue, so that they were now all three without

wives.

Full of wrath they ran to Simon's house, and, refusing to listen to a

word of explanation or excuse, they seized the old man and put him into

a sack, meaning to drown him in the neighbouring river. On their way

there, however, a sudden noise threw them into such a panic that they

dropped the sack with Simon in it and ran for their lives.

Soon after this a shepherd happened to pass by with his flock, and while

he was slowly following the sheep, who paused here and there by the

wayside to browse on the tender grass, he heard a pitiful voice wailing,

'They insist on my taking her, and I don't want her, for I am too old,

and I really can't have her.' The shepherd was much startled, for he

couldn't make out where these words, which were repeated more than once,

came from, and looked about him to the right and left; at last he

perceived the sack in which Simon was hidden, and going up to it he

opened it and discovered Simon repeating his dismal complaint. The

shepherd asked him why he had been left there tied up in a sack.

[Illustration]

Simon replied that the king of the country had insisted on giving him

one of his daughters as a wife, but that he had refused the honour

because he was too old and too frail. The simple-minded shepherd, who

believed his story implicitly, asked him, 'Do you think the king of the

country would give his daughter to me?'

'Yes, certainly, I know he would,' answered Simon, 'if you were tied up

in this sack instead of me.' Then getting out of the sack, he tied the

confiding shepherd up in it instead, and at his request fastened it

securely and drove the sheep on himself.

An hour had scarcely passed when the three rogues returned to the place

where they had left Simon in the sack, and without opening it, one of

them seized it and threw it into the river. And so the poor shepherd was

drowned instead of Mr. Simon!

The three rogues, having wreaked their vengeance, set out for home. On

their way they noticed a flock of sheep grazing not far from the road.

They longed to steal a few of the lambs, and approached the flock, and

were more than startled to recognise Mr. Simon, whom they had drowned in

the river, as the shepherd who was looking after the sheep. They asked

him how he had managed to get out of the river, to which he replied:

'Get along with you--you are no better than silly donkeys without any

sense; if you had only drowned me in deeper water I would have returned

with three times as many sheep.'

When the three rogues heard this, they said to him: 'Oh, dear Mr. Simon,

do us the favour to tie us up in sacks and throw us into the river that

we may give up our thieving ways and become the owners of flocks.'

'I am ready,' answered Simon, 'to do what you please; there's nothing in

the world I wouldn't do for you.'

So he took three strong sacks and put a man in each of them, and

fastened them up so tightly that they couldn't get out, and then he

threw them all into the river; and that was the end of the three rogues.

But Mr. Simon returned home to his faithful Nina rich in flocks and

gold; and lived for many a year in health and happiness.

Kletke.