Time-Once upon a time. Characters-A wood-cutter, a fairy, the wood-cutter"s wife.
Scene I.
Place-The middle of a forest. [The wood-culter is at work. He puts down his axe for a moment.]
Wood-cutter (sighing).-"How very poor, hungry, and unhappy I am. I work hard all day, and yet I can"t get enough to eat."[He picks up some wood, and turns to place it on the stack. Alittle white fairy enters and stands daintily on the log he is cutting.] Fairy.-"Good morning, wood-cutter."[The wood-cutter turns quickly and looks around; he does notsee the fairy at first because she is so small.] Fairy.-"Good morning, wood-cutter." [The wood-cutter looks down and sees her.] Wood-cutter.-" Good morning, ma"am."Fairy.-"I have heard all you say. I know how poor you are, and I am sorry for you. Now, I"ll give you three wishes. Wish what you please, and you shall have it."[The fairy flies away in the winking of an eye.]
Wood-cutter.-"She"s gone before I said, "Thank you." What luck she brings me! Now there"ll be no need to cut any more wood. I shall go home and tell my wife about the three wishes the fairy has given me."[He runs off, whistling a merry tune.]
Scene II.
Place-Inside the wood-cutter"s hut. [The wood- cutter"sWife is scrubbing the floor.]
Wife.- " Dear, oh dear, how tired I am, and how hard I have to work! There"s no fun in being the wife of a poor man." [The wood-cutter runs in. His wife stands up and looks at hisfeet.]
Wife.-"Stand off that patch and wipe your feet. What are you doing home at this time of day, you lazy, good-for- nothing fellow?"Wood-cutter.-"Wife, wife, don"t be angry with me. We soonshall be no longer poor. You won"t have to scrub any more floors."Wife.-"Why, what do you mean?"
Wood-cutter.-"As I was cutting wood just now, a fairy came and told me she would give me three wishes."Wife.-"Oh, how glad I am! Let us sit down, and thinkwhat we shall wish for."
Wood-cutter.-" We"d better take our dinner at the sametime. I am very hungry. We can talk about the wishes while we eat."[The wife places a jug of milk, some cups, and piece of drybread on the table. They sit down and begin their meal.]
Wood-cutter.- " We can wish for a great deal of money."Wife.-" We can ask for a grand house."
Wood-cutter.-" We can ask to be king and queen."Wife.-" Or to have some rich gems."
Wood-cutter.-" Well, what shall we ask for first? " [He takes some more bread and begins to eat it.]
Wood-cutter.-" This dry bread isn"t much of a meal. I wish I had a nice sausage to eat with it."[A large sausage falls upon the table. They stare at it inwonder.]
Wife.- "Look at what you"ve done, you stupid fellow. One of your wishes is gone, and you have got only a sausage for it."Wood-cutter.-"Yes, I have been foolish, but we have twowishes yet. We can still ask for a great deal of money, and to be made king and queen."Wife.-"Yes, but we cannot ask for rich gems. Why wereyou so foolish as to ask for nothing but a sausage? I"d never have done that! Would you rather have a sausage than pearls and diamonds?"Wood-cutter.-"I didn"t know that I was making a wish. Thewords slipped out before I could think."
Wife.-"Yes, that"s just like you. You never did know what you were talking about. You are nothing but an ass."Wood-cutter (angrily).-"You are always nagging, andalways turning up your nose at me. I wish the sausage were hanging from the end of it."[The sausage at once jumps from the table to the end of thewife"s nose.]
Wife.-"Now, look what you"ve done. Pull it Off,""
Wood-cutter.-"I really am an ass, after all." [He pulls at the sausage.]
Wife.-"Oh, you"re hurting me. Can"t you get it off?"Wood-cutter.-" It won"t come off. It"s grown to the end of your nose."Wife (crying).-"How very, very foolish I have been! Twowishes have gone, and we are worse off than we were at first. There is only one left."Wood-cutter.-" That is true, but we can still wish to be kingand queen."
Wife.-" Yes, but what would a queen look like with a sausage at the end of her nose? I had rather be the wife of a poor wood-cutter than be a queen like that. It"s all your fault."Wood-cutter.-" Well, I am sorry. I wish the sausage wasnot there."
[The sausage vanishes.]
Wife.-" Oh dear, that"s the last wish gone, and we"re nobetter off."
Wood-cutter.-"And now we haven"t even the sausage. I suppose I had better go back and cut some more wood. I shall have to be a wood-cutter all my life."Wife.-"And I shall have to scrub floors."
Dramatized from a story by the Brothers GrimmAuthors.-The Brothers Grimm.
General Notes.-What kind of man was the woodcutter? Why was the fairy kind to him? What kind of woman was the woodcutter"s wife? How did the fairy punish her?
