The Spirit in the Bottle

by The Brothers Grimm

　　

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There was once a poor woodcutter who toiled from early morning tilllate night. When at last he had laid by some money he said to his boy,"You are my only child, I will spend the money which I have earned withthe sweat of my brow on your education; if you learn some honest tradeyou can support me in my old age, when my limbs have grown stiff andI am obliged to stay at home." Then the boy went to a High School andlearned diligently so that his masters praised him, and he remained therea long time. When he had worked through two classes, but was still not yetperfect in everything, the little pittance which the father had earnedwas all spent, and the boy was obliged to return home to him. "Ah,"said the father, sorrowfully, "I can give you no more, and in thesehard times I cannot earn a farthing more than will suffice for ourdaily bread." "Dear father," answered the son, "don't trouble yourselfabout it, if it is God's will, it will turn to my advantage I shall soonaccustom myself to it." When the father wanted to go into the forest toearn money by helping to pile and stack wood ans also chop it, the sonsaid, "I will go with you and help you." "Nay, my son," said the father,"that would be hard for you; you are not accustomed to rough work, andwill not be able to bear it, besides I have only one axe and no moneyleft wherewith to buy another." "Just go to the neighbour," answered theson, "he will lend you his axe until I have earned one for myself." Thefather then borrowed an axe of the neighbour, and next morning at breakof day they went out into the forest together. The son helped his fatherand was quite merry and brisk about it. But when the sun was right overtheir heads, the father said, "We will rest, and have our dinner, andthen we shall work as well again." The son took his bread in his hands,and said, "Just you rest, father, I am not tired; I will walk up anddown a little in the forest, and look for birds' nests." "Oh, you fool,"said the father, "why should you want to run about there? Afterwards youwill be tired, and no longer able to raise your arm; stay here, and sitdown beside me." The son, however, went into the forest, ate his bread,was very merry and peered in among the green branches to see if he coulddiscover a bird's nest anywhere. So he went up and down to see if he couldfind a bird's nest until at last he came to a great dangerous-looking oak,which certainly was already many hundred years old, and which five mencould not have spanned. He stood still and looked at it, and thought,"Many a bird must have built its nest in that." Then all at once itseemed to him that he heard a voice. He listened and became aware thatsomeone was crying in a very smothered voice, "Let me out, let me out!" Helooked around, but could discover nothing; nevertheless, he fancied thatthe voice came out of the ground. Then he cried, "Where art thou?" Thevoice answered, "I am down here amongst the roots of the oak-tree. Let meout! Let me out!" The scholar began to loosen the earth under the tree,and search among the roots, until at last he found a glass bottle in alittle hollow. He lifted it up and held it against the light, and thensaw a creature shaped like a frog, springing up and down in it. "Letme out! Let me out!" it cried anew, and the scholar thinking no evil,drew the cork out of the bottle. Immediately a spirit ascended from it,and began to grow, and grew so fast that in a very few moments he stoodbefore the scholar, a terrible fellow as big as half the tree by whichhe was standing. "Knowest thou," he cried in an awful voice, "what thywages are for having let me out?" "No," replied the scholar fearlessly,"how should I know that?" "Then I will tell thee," cried the spirit;"I must strangle thee for it." "Thou shouldst have told me that sooner,"said the scholar, "for I should then have left thee shut up, but myhead shall stand fast for all thou canst do; more persons than one mustbe consulted about that." "More persons here, more persons there,"said the spirit. "Thou shalt have the wages thou hast earned. Dost thouthink that I was shut up there for such a long time as a favour. No, itwas a punishment for me. I am the mighty Mercurius. Whoso releases me,him must I strangle." "Softly," answered the scholar, "not so fast. Imust first know that thou really wert shut up in that little bottle,and that thou art the right spirit. If, indeed, thou canst get in again,I will believe and then thou mayst do as thou wilt with me." The spiritsaid haughtily, "that is a very trifling feat," drew himself together,and made himself as small and slender as he had been at first, so thathe crept through the same opening, and right through the neck of thebottle in again. Scarcely was he within than the scholar thrust the corkhe had drawn back into the bottle, and threw it among the roots of theoak into its old place, and the spirit was betrayed.

　　And now the scolar was about to return to his father, but the spiritcried very piteously, "Ah, do let me out! ah, do let me out!" "No,"answered the scholar, "not a second time! He who has once tried to take mylife shall not be set free by me, now that I have caught him again." "Ifthou wilt set me free," said the spirit, "I will give thee so much thatthou wilt have plenty all the days of thy life." "No," answered the boy,"thou wouldst cheat me as thou didst the first time." "Thou art playingaway with thy own good luck," said the spirit; "I will do thee no harmbut will reward thee richly." The scholar thought, "I will venture it,perhaps he will keep his word, and anyhow he shall not get the betterof me." Then he took out the cork, and the spirit rose up from thebottle as he had done before, stretched himself out and became as bigas a giant. "Now thou shalt have thy reward," said he, and handed thescholar a little bag just like a plaster, and said, "If thou spreadestone end of this over a wound it will heal, and if thou rubbest steel oriron with the other end it will be changed into silver." "I must justtry that," said the scholar, and went to a tree, tore off the bark withhis axe, and rubbed it with one end of the plaster. It immediately closedtogether and was healed. "Now, it is all right," he said to the spirit,"and we can part." The spirit thanked him for his release, and the boythanked the spirit for his present, and went back to his father.

　　"Where hast thou been racing about?" said the father; "why hast thouforgotten thy work? I said at once that thou wouldst never get on withanything." "Be easy, father, I will make it up." "Make it up indeed,"said the father angrily, "there's no art in that." "Take care, father,I will soon hew that tree there, so that it will split." Then hetook his plaster, rubbed the axe with it, and dealt a mighty blow,but as the iron had changed into silver, the edge turned; "Hollo,father, just look what a bad axe you've given me, it has become quitecrooked." The father was shocked and said, "Ah, what hast thou done? nowI shall have to pay for that, and have not the wherewithal, and that isall the good I have got by thy work." "Don't get angry," said the son,"I will soon pay for the axe." "Oh, thou blockhead," cried the father,"wherewith wilt thou pay for it? Thou hast nothing but what I givethee. These are students' tricks that are sticking in thy head, butthou hast no idea of wood-cutting." After a while the scholar said,"Father, I can really work no more, we had better take a holiday." "Eh,what!" answered he, "Dost thou think I will sit with my hands lying inmy lap like thee? I must go on working, but thou mayst take thyself offhome." "Father, I am here in this wood for the first time, I don't knowmy way alone. Do go with me." As his anger had now abated, the father atlast let himself be persuaded and went home with him. Then he said to theson, "Go and sell thy damaged axe, and see what thou canst get for it,and I must earn the difference, in order to pay the neighbour." The sontook the axe, and carried it into town to a goldsmith, who tested it,laid it in the scales, and said, "It is worth four hundred thalers, Ihave not so much as that by me." The son said, "Give me what thou hast,I will lend you the rest." The goldsmith gave him three hundred thalers,and remained a hundred in his debt. The son thereupon went home and said,"Father, I have got the money, go and ask the neighbour what he wantsfor the axe." "I know that already," answered the old man, "one thaler,six groschen." "Then give him him two thalers, twelve groschen, thatis double and enough; see, I have money in plenty," and he gave thefather a hundred thalers, and said, "You shall never know want, live ascomfortably as you like." "Good heavens!" said the father, "how hastthou come by these riches?" The scholar then told how all had come topass, and how he, trusting in his luck, had made such a good hit. Butwith the money that was left, he went back to the High School and wenton learning more, and as he could heal all wounds with his plaster,he became the most famous doctor in the whole world.

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