wn the street crying: 'Good jams, cheap! Good jams,
cheap!' This rang pleasantly in the tailor's ears; he stretched his
delicate head out of the window, and called: 'Come up here, dear woman;
here you will get rid of your goods.' The woman came up the three steps
to the tailor with her heavy basket, and he made her unpack all the pots
for him. He inspected each one, lifted it up, put his nose to it, and
at length said: 'The jam seems to me to be good, so weigh me out four
ounces, dear woman, and if it is a quarter of a pound that is of no
consequence.' The woman who had hoped to find a good sale, gave him
what he desired, but went away quite angry and grumbling. 'Now, this jam
shall be blessed by God,' cried the little tailor, 'and give me health
and strength'; so he brought the bread out of the cupboard, cut himself
a piece right across the loaf and spread the jam over it. 'This won't
taste bitter,' said he, 'but I will just finish the jacket before I
take a bite.' He laid the bread near him, sewed on, and in his joy, made
bigger and bigger stitches. In the meantime the smell of the sweet jam
rose to where the flies were sitting in great numbers, and they were
attracted and descended on it in hosts. 'Hi! who invited you?' said the
little tailor, and drove the unbidden guests away. The flies, however,
who understood no German, would not be turned away, but came back
again in ever-increasing companies. The little tailor at last lost all
patience, and drew a piece of cloth from the hole under his work-table,
and saying: 'Wait, and I will give it to you,' struck it mercilessly on
them. When he drew it away and counted, there lay before him no fewer
than seven, dead and with legs stretched out. 'Are you a fellow of that
sort?' said he, and could not help admiring his own bravery. 'The whole
town shall know of this!' And the little tailor hastened to cut himself
a girdle, stitched it, and embroidered on it in large letters: 'Seven at
one stroke!' 'What, the town!' he continued, 'the whole world shall hear
of it!' and his heart wagged with joy like a lamb's tail. The tailor
put on the girdle, and resolved to go forth into the world, because he
thought his workshop was too small for his valour. Before he went away,
he sought about in the house to see if there was anything which he could
take with him; however, he found nothing but an old cheese, and that
he put in his pocket. In front of the door he observed a bird which
had cau