Thus they kept on quarrelling and fighting about the egg, and
they were very near tearing each other's hair. But at last they
agreed that it should belong to them all, and that they should sit
on it as the geese do and hatch a gosling. The Brst woman sat
on it for eight days, taking it very comfortably and doing nothing
at all, while the others had to work hard both for their own and
her living. One of the women began to make some insinuations
to her about this.
" Well, I suppose you didn't come out of the egg either before
you could chirp," said the woman who was on the egg. "But I
think there is something in this egg, for I fancy I can hear some one
inside grumbling every other
moment: 'Herring and soup!
Porridge and milk 1 ' You can
come and sit for eight days now,
and then we will sit and work
in turn, all of us."
So when the fifth in turn had
sat for eight days, she heard
plainly some one inside the egg
screeching for " Herring and
soup! Porridge and milk!" And
so she made a hole in it ; but
instead of a gosling out came a
baby, but it was awfully ugly, and had a big head and a tJny little
body. The first thing it screamed out for, as soon as it put its
head outside the egg, was " Herring and soup! Porridge and milk!"
And so they called it " the greedy youngster."
Ugly as he was, they were fond of him at first ; but before long
he became so greedy that he ate up all the meat they had. When
they boiled a dish of soup or a pot of porridge which they thought
would be suflicient for all six, he finished it all by himself. So
they would not have him any longer.
" I have not had a decent meal since this changeling crept out
of the eggshell," said one of them, and when the youngster heard
that they were all of the same opinion, tie said he was quite willing
Page:Round the Yule Log.djvu/119
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The Greedy Youngster.
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