So he began to grind away; but while he was hard at it, down fell the cow off the housetop after all, and as she fell, she dragged the man up the chimney by the rope. There he stuck fast; and as for the cow, she hung halfway down the wall, swinging between heaven and earth, for she could neither get down nor up.
And now the goody had waited seven lengths and seven breadths for her husband to come and call them home to dinner; but never a call they had. At last she thought she’d waited long enough, and went home. But when she got there and saw the cow hanging in such an ugly place, she ran up and cut the rope in two with her scythe. But as she did this, down came her husband out of the chimney; and so when his old dame came inside the kitchen, there she found him standing on his head in the porridge pot.
HOW ONE WENT OUT TO WOO
By Sir George Webbe Dasent
Once upon a time there was a lad who went out to woo him a wife. Among other places he came to a farmhouse, where the household were little better than beggars; but when the wooer came in they wanted to make out that they were well to do, as you may guess. Now the husband had got a new arm to his coat.
“Pray, take a seat,” he said to the wooer; “but there’s a shocking dust in the house.”
So he went about rubbing and wiping all the benches and tables with his new arm, but he kept the other all the while behind his back.
The wife she had got one new shoe, and she went stamping and sliding with it up against the stools and chairs saying, “How untidy it is here! Everything is out of place!”
Then they called out to their daughter to come down and put things to rights; but the daughter she had got a new cap; so she put her head in at the door, and kept nodding and nodding, first to this side and then to that.
“Well! For my part, She said, I can’t be everywhere at once.”