Page:Lays and Legends of Germany (1834).djvu/253

 But his good intentions were frustrated, for Rubezahl had played his game, and had all the amusement he intended with the poor knave; accordingly he scampered away, brought unnoticed in his place the real spear, which never played any more tricks, but after the old fashion of other spears, accompanied its master in a becoming and orderly style.





A poor woman, who got her living by herbalizing, once went, accompanied by her two little children, to the mountains, carrying with her a basket in which to gather medical herbs, which she was in the habit of disposing of to the apothecaries. Having chanced to discover a large tract of land covered with such plants as were most esteemed, she busied herself so in filling her basket, that she lost her way, and was troubled to find out how to get back to the path from which she had wandered, when a man, dressed like a peasant, suddenly appeared and asked, as if by accident, (for it was Rubezahl,) ‘Well, good woman, what is it you are looking so anxiously for, and where do you want to go to?’

To this she replied, ‘Alas, I am a poor woman, who have neither bit nor sup, for which reason I am obliged to wander to gather herbs, that I may buy a bit of bread for myself and my hungry children; and now I have lost my