ed it before, and she began a-thinking. And she
thought it was very dangerous to have that mallet there, for she said to
herself: "Suppose him and me was to be married, and we was to have a
son, and he was to grow up to be a man, and come down into the cellar to
draw the beer, like as I'm doing now, and the mallet was to fall on his
head and kill him, what a dreadful thing it would be!" And she put down
the candle and the jug, and sat herself down and began a-crying.

Well, they began to wonder upstairs how it was that she was so long
drawing the beer, and her mother went down to see after her, and she
found her sitting on the settle crying, and the beer running over the
floor. "Why, whatever is the matter?" said her mother.

"Oh, mother!" says she, "look at that horrid mallet! Suppose we was to
be married, and was to have a son, and he was to grow up, and was to
come down to the cellar to draw the beer, and the mallet was to fall on
his head and kill him, what a dreadful thing it would be!"

"Dear, dear! what a dreadful thing it would be!" said the mother, and
she sat her down aside of the daughter and started a-crying too.

Then after a bit the father began to wonder that they didn't come back,
and he went down into the cellar to look after them himself, and there
they two sat a-crying, and the beer running all over the floor.

"Whatever is the matter?" says he.

"Why," says the mother, "look at that horrid mallet. Just suppose, if
our daughter and her sweetheart was to be married, and was to have a
son, and he was to grow up, and was to come down into the cellar to draw
the beer, and the mallet was to fall on his head and kill him, what a
dreadful thing it would be!"

"Dear, dear, dear! so it would!" said the father, and he sat himself
down aside of the other two, and started a-crying.

Now the gentleman got tired of stopping up in the kitchen by himself,
and at last he went down into the cellar too, to see what they were
after; and there they three sat a-crying side by side, and the beer
running all over the floor. And he ran straight and turned the tap. Then
he said: "Whatever are you three doing, sitting there crying, and
letting the beer run all over the floor?"

"Oh!" says the father, "look at that horrid mallet! Suppose you and our
daughter was to be married, and was to have a son, and he was to grow
up, and was to come down into the cellar to draw the beer, and the
mallet was to fall on his head and k