A CLEVER LASS

Once upon a time there was a shepherd. He used to pasture his sheep upon a hill, and one day he saw something glittering on the opposite hill. So he went there to see what it was. It was a golden mortar¹. He took it up and said to his daughter: “I will give this mortar to our king.”

But she said: “Don’t do that. If you give him the mortar, you won’t have the pestle², and he is sure to ask for it, and then you will get into trouble.”

But the shepherd thought that she was only a silly girl. He took the mortar, and, when he came before the king, he said: “Begging your pardon, Mr. King, I want to give you this mortar.”

The king answered him roughly: “If you give me the mortar, I must have the pestle as well. Unless the pestle is here within three days, your life will be forfeit³.” [166]

The shepherd began to lament⁴: “My daughter was right when she said that when you had got the mortar you would want the pestle too. I wouldn’t listen to her, so it serves me right.”

“Have you such a clever daughter as that?” asked the king.

“Indeed I have,” said the shepherd.

“Then tell your daughter that I will marry her, if she comes neither walking nor riding, clothed nor unclothed, neither by day nor by night, neither at noon nor in the morning. And I won’t ask for the pestle either.”

The shepherd went home and said: “You can get me out of this, if you go to Mr. King neither clothed nor unclothed,” and the rest of it.

But the daughter wasn’t a bit frightened. She came with the fall of dusk (and that was neither at noon nor in the morning); she dressed herself in fishing-nets; she took a goat, and she partly rode on the goat and partly she walked.

And when the king saw that she had only a fishing-net on, that she came with the approach of dusk, and that she was partly walking, partly riding on the goat, he was [167]bound to marry her. But he said to her: “You will be my wife so long as you don’t give advice to anybody; but if you do, you must part with me.”

Well, she didn’t give advice to anybody until one day there was a market in the town, and a farmer’s mare⁵ had a foal at the market. The foal ran away to another farmer, who was there with a gelding, and the farmer said: “This foal belongs to me.”

They went to law about it, and at last the matter came before the king. And the king, considering that every animal ought to run to its mother, decided⁶ that a gelding had had a foal.

The farmer who owned the mare went down the stairs, saying over and over again: “The gelding has foaled! the gelding has foaled!”

The queen heard him, and she said: “Man, you are talking nonsense.”

So he told her that he had been at the market, that his mare had foaled, but the foal ran to another farmer who was there with a gelding. “And now,” he said, “it has been decided that the gelding has foaled.” So he thought there could be no mistake; at any rate, he couldn’t help it. [168]

When the queen heard this story she said: “To-morrow, my lord the king will go out for a stroll. Take a fishing-net, and begin fishing on the road in front of him. The king will ask you: ‘Why are you fishing on a dry road?’ And you must answer: ‘Why not? it’s as hopeful as expecting a gelding to foal.’ But you must not say who gave you this advice.”

So it was. As the king was walking along he saw the farmer fishing on the dry road. He asked him why he was fishing there.

“Why not?” said he, “it’s as hopeful as expecting a gelding to foal.”

The king at once began to rate the farmer. “That’s not out of your own head,” he said, and he kept at the farmer until he let the secret out.

So the king came home, summoned the queen, and said to her: “You have been with me for a long time, and you have given advice in spite of all, so you must go to-morrow. But I will allow you to take with you the thing you like best.”

It was no good arguing. So the king invited all his courtiers and prepared a splendid banquet. When the banquet was finished, the [169]queen said to the king: “Before we part, you must drink this glass of wine to my health,” and she had put some opium⁷ into the wine on the sly.

The king drank it at a draught⁸ and fell asleep at once. A carriage was got ready, and the queen put the king in it and drove to her father’s old hut. There she laid the king on the straw, and, when he woke up, he asked where he was.

“You are with me. Didn’t you tell me that I could take the thing I liked best with me?”

The king saw how clever she was, and he said: “Now you can give advice to anybody you like.”

And so they drove home again, and he was king and she queen again.

1 mortar   

n.灰浆，灰泥；迫击炮；v.把…用灰浆涂接合

参考例句：

• The mason flushed the joint with mortar.泥工用灰浆把接缝处嵌平。
• The sound of mortar fire seemed to be closing in.迫击炮的吼声似乎正在逼近。

2 pestle   

n.杵

参考例句：

• He ground the rock candy with a mortar and pestle.他自己动手用研钵和杵把冰糖研成粉。
• An iron pestle can be ground down to a needle.只要功夫深，铁杵磨成针。

3 forfeit   

vt.丧失；n.罚金，罚款，没收物

参考例句：

• If you continue to tell lies,you will forfeit the good opinion of everyone.你如果继续撒谎，就会失掉大家对你的好感。
• Please pay for the forfeit before you borrow book.在你借书之前请先付清罚款。

4 lament   

n.悲叹，悔恨，恸哭；v.哀悼，悔恨，悲叹

参考例句：

• Her face showed lament.她的脸上露出悲伤的样子。
• We lament the dead.我们哀悼死者。

5 mare   

n.母马，母驴

参考例句：

• The mare has just thrown a foal in the stable.那匹母马刚刚在马厩里产下了一只小马驹。
• The mare foundered under the heavy load and collapsed in the road.那母马因负载过重而倒在路上。

6 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

7 opium   

n.鸦片；adj.鸦片的

参考例句：

• That man gave her a dose of opium.那男人给了她一剂鸦片。
• Opium is classed under the head of narcotic.鸦片是归入麻醉剂一类的东西。

8 draught   

n.拉，牵引，拖；一网（饮，吸，阵)；顿服药量，通风；v.起草，设计

参考例句：

• He emptied his glass at one draught.他将杯中物一饮而尽。
• It's a pity the room has no north window and you don't get a draught.可惜这房间没北窗，没有过堂风。