Folk Tales

There was an old farmer, and his wife could not please him at all with the housework, and no food pleased him, nor doing anything at all. But one day she says to him:

'Good gracious, John! You shall work in the house tomorrow and I shall go with the servants.'

'All right', he said, 'I'll set you a good example.'

And that's what happened. The woman went out next morning with the men, and he went at it. He had to churn to begin with. There was a churn in the house, and there was a cow that needed to be taken to a piece of land by the side of the house. And there was a big cliff there, and he was afraid she would fall over it. And what did he do but tie a rope round her horns and put a rope down the chimney and tied it round his leg. And then he went to churn. He left the churn for a little while and the sow came in and turned it over. He took a floor brush and killed the sow dead.

And it was high time for him to make dinner by then. He thought of making porridge. He put the pot on the fire, with water and oats in it. And lo, the cow went over the cliff and pulled him up the chimney.

And the men came home - the wife as well - and the first thing they saw was the cow hanging over the cliff. And they came into the house and they cut the rope, and what did they see but the sow dead in the middle of the butter milk, and the old farmer had come down the chimney head first into the pot of porridge.