So you may fancy
the quern didn't grow rusty for want of work, and when hay-harvest came,
the rich brother got it, but the other took care not to teach him how to
handle it.
It was evening when the rich brother got the quern home, and the next
morning he told his wife to go out into the hay-field and toss, while
the mowers cut the grass, and he would stay at home and get the dinner
ready. So, when dinner-time drew near, he put the quern on the kitchen
table and said:
"Grind herrings and broth, and grind them good and fast."
So the quern began to grind herrings and broth; first of all, all the
dishes full, then all the tubs full, and so on till the kitchen floor
was quite covered. Then the man twisted and twirled at the quern to get
it to stop, but for all his twisting and fingering the quern went on
grinding, and in a little while the broth rose so high that the man was
like to drown. So he threw open the kitchen door and ran into the
parlour, but it wasn't long before the quern had ground the parlour full
too, and it was only at the risk of his life that the man could get hold
of the latch of the house door through the stream of broth. When he got
the door open, he ran out and set off down the road, with the stream of
herrings and broth at his heels, roaring like a waterfall over the whole
farm.
Now, his old dame, who was in the field tossing hay, thought it a long
time to dinner, and at last she said:
"Well! though the master doesn't call us home, we may as well go.
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