The husband upstairs waited a short time, but at last, as his wife did not return and his thirst grew greater, he said, “I must go down into the cellar myself and see what has become of Alice.” [[110]]
But when he entered the cellar and found them all sitting there together crying, and heard the reason, how Alice’s child was the cause of it all, because she might possibly have a child, who might be killed by the pickax, if he should happen to be sitting beneath it drawing beer just at the moment when the pickax fell down, then he, too, said, “What a clever Alice we have!” and sat down and wept with them.
The bridegroom waited upstairs alone for a long time; then, as nobody came, he said: “They must be waiting downstairs for me. I will go down and see what they are about.” When he got downstairs there sat all five, weeping and lamenting in a heartrending way, each a little louder than the others.
“What misfortune can possibly have happened?” he asked.
“Alas! dear Hans,” said Alice, “if we marry and have a child, and he grows up, and we happen to send him into the cellar here to draw beer, then that pickax which has been hanging up there might kill him [[111]]if it were to fall down upon his head; so have we not reason to weep?”
“Well,” said Hans, “more cleverness than that is not needed to keep house for me; and as you are such a clever Alice I will have you for my wife.” So he took her by the hand, led her upstairs with him, and married her.
When they had been married some time, Hans said, “Wife, I am going out to work and earn some money for us; do you go into the field and cut the corn, so that we may have some bread.”
“Yes, my dear Hans, I will do so.”
After Hans went away Alice cooked some nice broth for herself and took it into the field with her. When she got there she said to herself: “Now which shall I do? Shall I reap first, or eat first? I will eat first.”
So she emptied her bowl of broth, and when she was satisfied she said again: “Now which shall I do? Shall I reap first, or sleep first? I will sleep first.”