od
woman, and you'll find a willing customer." The woman climbed up the
three flights of stairs with her heavy basket to the tailor's room, and
he made her spread out all the pots in a row before him. He examined
them all, lifted them up and smelled them, and said at last: "This jam
seems good, weigh me four ounces of it, my good woman; and even if it's
a quarter of a pound I won't stick at it." The woman, who had hoped to
find a good market, gave him what he wanted, but went away grumbling
wrathfully. "Now heaven shall bless this jam for my use," cried the
little tailor, "and it shall sustain and strengthen me." He fetched some
bread out of a cupboard, cut a round off the loaf, and spread the jam on
it. "That won't taste amiss," he said; "but I'll finish that waistcoat
first before I take a bite." He placed the bread beside him, went
on sewing, and out of the lightness of his heart kept on making his
stitches bigger and bigger. In the meantime the smell of the sweet jam
rose to the ceiling, where heaps of flies were sitting, and attracted
them to such an extent that they swarmed on to it in masses. "Ha! who
invited you?" said the tailor, and chased the unwelcome guests away. But
the flies, who didn't understand English, refused to let themselves
be warned off, and returned again in even greater numbers. At last the
little tailor, losing all patience, reached out of his chimney corner
for a duster, and exclaiming: "Wait, and I'll give it to you," he beat
them mercilessly with it. When he left off he counted the slain, and
no fewer than seven lay dead before him with outstretched legs. "What a
desperate fellow I am!" said he, and was filled with admiration at his
own courage. "The whole town must know about this"; and in great haste
the little tailor cut out a girdle, hemmed it, and embroidered on it in
big letters, "Seven at a blow." "What did I say, the town? no, the whole
world shall hear of it," he said; and his heart beat for joy as a lamb
wags his tail.

The tailor strapped the girdle round his waist and set out into the wide
world, for he considered his workroom too small a field for his prowess.
Before he set forth he looked round about him, to see if there was
anything in the house he could take with him on his journey; but he
found nothing except an old cheese, which he took possession of. In
front of the house he observed a bird that had been caught in some
bushes, and this he put into his wallet beside the ch