The boy went down, and there sat Clever Elsie and the girl both weeping together. Then he asked, “Why are you weeping?”
“Ah,” said Elsie, “have I not reason to weep? If I get Hans, and we have a child, and he grows big, and has to draw beer here, the pickaxe will fall on his head and kill him.”
Then said the boy, “What a clever Elsie we have!” and sat down by her, and likewise began to howl loudly.
Upstairs they waited for the boy, but as he did not return, the man said to the woman, “Just go down into the cellar and see where Elsie is!”
The woman went down, and found all three in the midst of their lamentations, and inquired what was the cause. Then Elsie told her also, that her future child was to be killed by the pickaxe, when it grew big and had to draw beer, and the pickaxe fell down.
Then said the mother likewise, “What a clever Elsie we have!” and sat down and wept with them.
The man upstairs waited a short time, but as his wife did not come back and his thirst grew ever greater, he said, “I must go into the cellar myself and see where Elsie is.”
But when he got into the cellar, and they were all sitting together crying, and he heard the reason, and that Elsie’s child was the cause, and that Elsie might perhaps bring one into the world some day, and that it might be killed by the pickaxe, if it should happen to be sitting beneath it, drawing beer just at the very time when it fell, he cried, “Oh, what a clever Elsie!” and sat down, and likewise wept with them.
The Bridegroom stayed up-stairs alone for a long time; then as no one came back he thought, “They must be waiting for me below. I, too, must go there and see what they are about.”
When he got down, all five of them were sitting screaming and lamenting quite piteously, each outdoing the other.