This is an old,old story which my grandmother told me when I was a little girl.When she was a little girl her grandfather had told it to her,and when he was a little peasant boy in Bohemia,his mother had told it to him.And where she heard it,I don't know,but you can see it is an old old story,and here it is,the way my grandmother used to tell it.
It is called―
This man,his name was Fritzl—his wife,her name was Liesi.They had a little baby,Kinndli by name,and Spitz who was a dog.
They had one cow,two goats,three pigs,and of geese they had a dozen.That's what they had.
They lived on a patch of land,and that's where they worked.
Fritzl had to plow the ground,sow the seeds and hoe the weeds.He had to cut the hay and rake it too,and stack it up in bunches in the sun.The man worked hard,you see,from day to day.
Liesi had the house to clean,the soup to cook,the butter to churn,the barn yard and the baby to care for.She,too,worked hard each day as you can plainly see.
They both worked hard,but Fritzl always thought that he worked harder.Evenings when he came home from the field,he sat down,mopped his face with his big red handkerchief,and said:"Hu!How hot it was in the sun today,and how hard I did work.Little do you know,Liesi,what a man's work is like,little do you know!Your work now,'tis nothing at all."
"'Tis none too easy,"said Liesi.
"None too easy!"cried Fritzl."All you do is to putter and potter around the house a bit—surely there's nothing hard about such things."
"Nay,if you think so,"said Liesi,"we'll take it turn and turn about tomorrow.I will do your work,you can do mine.I will go out in the fields and cut the hay,you can stay here at home and putter and potter around.You wish to try it—yes?"