The others sat upstairs waiting for the beer, but Clever Elsa never came back.
Then the Mistress said to her Servant: ‘Go down to the cellar, and see why Elsa does not come back.’
The Maid went, and found Elsa sitting by the cask, weeping bitterly. ‘Why, Elsa, whatever are you crying for?’ she asked.
‘Alas!’ she answered, ‘have I not cause to cry? If I marry Hans, and we have a child, when he grows big, and we send him down to draw beer, perhaps that pickaxe will fall on his head and kill him.’
Then the Maid said: ‘What a Clever Elsa we have’; and she, too, sat down by Elsa, and began to cry over the misfortune.
After a time, as the Maid did not come back, and they were growing very thirsty, the Master said to the Serving-man: ‘Go down to the cellar and see what has become of Elsa and the Maid.’
The Man went down, and there sat Elsa and the Maid weeping together. So he said: ‘What are you crying for?’
‘Alas!’ said Elsa, ‘have I not enough to cry for? If I marry Hans, and we have a child, and we send it when it is big enough into the cellar to draw beer, the pickaxe will fall on its head and kill it.’
The Man said: ‘What a Clever Elsa we have’; and he, too, joined them and howled in company.
The people upstairs waited a long time for the Serving-man, but as he did not come back, the Husband said to his Wife: ‘Go down to the cellar yourself, and see what has become of Elsa.’
So the Mistress went down and found all three making loud lamentations, and she asked the cause of their grief.
Then Elsa told her that her future child would be killed by the falling of the pickaxe when it was big enough to be sent to draw the beer. Her Mother said with the others: ‘Did you ever see such a Clever Elsa as we have?’
