And on the Monday cometh Owlglass, and he saith unto them: “Have ye my boots ready?” And the master had hung them upon a hook in his shop, and answered unto him, and said, as he pointed unto them: “Behold, there have ye your boots as they hang.” And Owlglass looked, and saw that they were so smeared within and without; and he laughed, and said: “How good and pious a master bootmaker have I found, that he doth smear me my boots throughly. And what may ye desire to have for your pains?” Then spake the master: “An old penny will I have.” Then did Owlglass give him an old penny he had by him, and departed from the house; and then laughed the master and his man, and said one to the other: “How may he take that? Surely now hath he been made a fool!” That heard our good Master Owlglass; and he put his head within the window so that it brake, and head and shoulders followed after, to the great wonderment of all thereby. And Owlglass said unto the bootmaker: “Master, what lard used ye? Tell me if it be lard from a sow or a boar?” Thereat was the master amazed with his man, and at last perceived that Owlglass lay in the window, and he had broken it. Then the bootmaker grew angry, and said: “The genius of evil take thee! What meanest thou? With this lapstone will I break thy head!” Then said Owlglass: “Honourable sir, be not angry. It is but a simple answer I would have. Which is it from which ye have taken the lard, from a sow or a boar?” And the master wished his window whole. But he answered never a word; and thereat said Owlglass: “If that ye will not tell me, I must depart to foreign lands to have it certified, and of another must I learn whether it be of a sow or a boar.” Therewith departed Owlglass.
Then waxed the master wroth with his man, and said unto him: “That counsel gavest thou me; now give me other counsel how that my window may be whole.” But the servant was dumb. So said the master: “Which hath been the greatest fool among these, and who shall pay the damage?” But the comrade held his tongue; and the master continued: “Who is it that hath mocked the other? How shall my window be made whole? I have always heard it said: He that is heavy laden with a fool may soon rejoice to lose his pack from his shoulders; and if I had done that might I have kept my window, nor would I have cared an if it had been in that wise.” Therefore departed the apprentice, and bootmaker Christopher paid for his broken window himself.
The Fifty and Second Adventure.
Telleth how that Owlglass at Einbeck became a brewer’s man, and did seethe a dog which was called Hops.
Owlglass tarried not at any time in doing his evil knavery. And he came unto Einbeck after a time, and in that town did he hire him unto a brewer to be his man. Then came it to pass, that the brewer his master desired to go unto a wedding; and he spake unto Owlglass, and said unto him: “Do thou brew with the maid while I am away from hence, and to-morrow will I return to help thee in thy labour. Yet, above all, do ye not forget to put hops into the beer, so that it shall savour strongly thereof, and be a most desirable thing to buy.” And Owlglass answered and said unto his master, that would he diligently perform unto his content. Then did the brewer with his wife depart out of the door to the wedding. Then began Owlglass to brew the beer; and the serving-woman taught him what he should do, forasmuch as she understood it better than he did. And when it came to be time that the hops should be put therein, the maid said unto him: “Lo! my dear fellow-servant, thou canst boil the hops alone as well as while I am with thee. Therefore do thou boil them, and I will go for an hour unto the dance.” And Owlglass said: “Yea;” and thought within himself: “When that she hath departed out of the way, then canst thou better do thy knavery. What shall it be that thou wilt do unto this brewer?”
Now the brewer had in his house a great dog, whose name was Hops; and when the water was hot, took Owlglass the poor beast, and threw him into the vat, and boiled him therein, so that the flesh was boiled from off the bones, and the skin and hair was sodden altogether. Thereafter thought the maid, that it was time she should return home unto Owlglass, for the hops must have been seethed enough. She entered in unto him, and spake unto him: “Lo! my brother, now have the hops seethed enough; draw off.” Then took she a sieve and strained the beer, but found nought therein; then said she unto Owlglass: “Hast thou also put therein the hops, as I said unto ye? I find nought therein.” But Owlglass said: “Thou wilt find all at the bottom.” And the woman took a shovel, and found the bones of the dog at the bottom. Then cried she aloud: “What is this thing thou hast put therein? The evil one defend me from this beer!” And Owlglass answered: “What our master commanded me that did I. I seethed therein Hops our dog.”
It fortuned that the brewer then entered in unto them, and he had drunken himself drunk at the wedding; and he said unto them: “Ha! ha! what is it that ye do, my children?” Then answered the maid, and said unto him: “Lo! I did but go for half an hour unto the dance, and bade this our new man to seethe the hops in the beer; and he hath taken our dog, and hath seethed him. Behold, ye may see his bones.” Then spake Owlglass, and said: “Truly did I nothing more than ye enjoined me to do. Ye said that Hops should I seethe, and that have I done. But ye are ungrateful when that I am obedient. Had ye servants which ever did that which ye commanded as I have done, would ye surely have great content.” Then departed he, and was wroth that they thanked him not.
HOW OWLGLASS BOILETH HOPS.
The Fifty and Third Adventure.
How that Owlglass hired him unto a tailor, and sewed so secretly that it was not seen of any one.
And when that Owlglass approached unto Berlin, he there hired him unto a tailor of that town. Then said his master unto him, as he sate in the workshop: “If that thou sewest for me, sew for me after that wise that it shall be seen of no one.” To him answered Owlglass: “Yea;” and with that took his work, and crept him under the counter, and put his work across his knee, and began there to sew. The tailor stood thereby, and looked upon him, and said unto him: “What doest thou? Of a truth that is a marvellous way to sew thy coat.” And Owlglass answered: “Master, said ye not that I should sew in such wise as that it should be seen of no one, and can any one behold me where I sew?” Then said the tailor: “Nay; but, my dear serving-man, sew ye no longer after that wise, but begin to sew that all may see.”