Chapter 73 72. Catherine the Wise Peasant Girl

One day, a farmer was hoeing in the vineyard when his shovel hit something hard.He bent down to have a look, and it turned out to be a delicate mortar.He picked it up, wiped the dirt off it, and found it to be pure gold. "This is what a king deserves!" he said to himself. "I will dedicate it to the king, and maybe he will give me something else!" His daughter Catherine was waiting for him at home.He showed off the gold mortar to his daughter, and said he would dedicate it to the king. Catherine said: "It is true that this mortar is so beautiful that people can't say anything. But if you donate it to the king, he will be very critical and say something wrong, and maybe you have to take the risk."

"What's missing? Even a king, what could he find fault with, silly boy?" Catherine said: "The king will say: This mortar is large and beautiful, Fool, where is the pestle? " The farmer shrugged and said, "Look at what you said, how could the king talk like that! Do you think the king is as stupid as you?" The farmer put the mortar in his arm, and went to the king's palace to see the king.The guards did not want him to go in, and he told them he would make a rare gift, so they brought him before the king. "Your Majesty," said the farmer, "I found this all-gold mortar in my vineyard. I think it should be in your palace, so if you like it, I will give it to you." It contributes to you."

The king held the mortar in both hands, and looked at it carefully for a long time.Then he raised his head and said: "This mortar is large and beautiful, Only I don't have the pestle for it. " Exactly the same as Catherine said, only without saying "fool" to him, because the king is a cultured man.The farmer slapped his forehead and couldn't help shouting: "It's not bad at all! Her guess is really accurate!" "Who guessed right?" asked the king. "I am sorry," said the farmer, "but it is my daughter who said that the King would answer in this way, and I did not believe it then."

"This daughter of yours must be very clever," said the king. "I want to see how capable she is. Give her this skein of flax to make shirts for one of my regiments, and I will soon have them." " The farmer was terrified, dumbfounded: but the king dared not disobey the order; he had to take the bundle with the pitiful strands of thread, leave the gold mortar, salute the king and leave the palace.He didn't even get a penny tip. "My daughter," he said to Catherine, "doom is upon you!" and he related to her the king's order. "You needn't be alarmed," said Catherine, "give me the thread." She shook the thread in her hand.It is well known that there will always be splinters in the linen thread, even if it has been combed by an expert.A few small crumbs fell to the ground, so small they were almost invisible to the naked eye.Catherine picked up these small pieces and said to her father: "Take these and go back to the palace at once and tell the king that I can use these threads to weave shirts for his soldiers, but I don't have a loom, so he must give it to the king." I provide looms capable of weaving small pieces, and I can fulfill his orders."

The farmer dared not go back to the king with such an answer, but he could not stand Catherine's repeated entreaties, and finally agreed to go. After hearing this, the king thought Catherine was a smart girl, so he wanted to see her.The king said: "Your daughter is indeed very clever! Please send her to me, I want to talk to her. But be careful: she can neither come naked nor clothed; neither Hungry, can't eat; can't come by day, can't come by night; she can't come on foot, can't come on horseback. She must do exactly what I say, or let your heads move. " When the farmer returned home, he felt that life would be worse than death.But his daughter, like nothing happened, said, "Daddy, I know how to deal with it. Just find me a fishing net."

Catherine was up before dawn, put on her fishing net (so that she was neither naked nor dressed), ate some lupines (so that she was neither hungry nor fed), and led out A female goat straddles the back of the sheep, with one foot on the ground and the other in the air (so that it neither walks nor rides a horse).She came to the palace in this attire when it was just beginning to light (and managed to come neither during the day nor at night).The guards thought she was mad, and would not let her in: but when they learned that she was carrying out the king's orders, they took her into the palace.

"Your Majesty, I have come as you ordered." The king couldn't help laughing, and said, "Good Catherine! You are the girl I am looking for. Now I want to marry you and make you queen. But there is one condition, you must remember: You must pay attention, Never meddle in my affairs." (The king knew that Catherine was much wiser than he was.) When the farmer learned of this, he said, "If the king wants to marry you, there is nothing against it. But watch what you do, for the king can decide quickly what he wants, and he can decide just as quickly what he wants." Nothing. Leave your old clothes anyway, and let me hang them on a hook, and if you have to go home someday, you can find them where they came from."

Catherine was very happy, and a few days later the wedding was held in the joy of the whole country, people also held a wedding in the city, and people held a grand assembly in the city.All the inns were full, and the peasants had to sleep in the open air in the squares, right up to the windows of the king's house. A farmer brought a pregnant cow to sell, but could not find a stable to keep his cow overnight.The innkeeper said he could let his cattle spend the night under the arcade.So he tied the ox to another farmer's wagon.That same night, the cow gave birth to a calf; and the next morning, the owner of the cow was very happy, and was going to take his two animals, when suddenly the owner of the carriage jumped out, and cried, "Then The cow is yours, you must keep the calf, it is mine."

"How is it yours? Didn't my cow give birth last night?" "Oh, yours?" cried the man. "The cow was hitched to the wagon, and the wagon was mine, so the calf should be the wagon owner's." They bickered endlessly, then quickly fought again.The two men fought each other with sticks used to support the carriage.Their noise attracted many spectators, and the police came at night, pulled the two of them apart, and took them straight to the royal court. What you need to know is that there was such a rule in this capital that the king's wife can also express her opinions in court.But now, after Catherine became queen, whenever the king announced a sentence, Catherine's opinion was always different from the king's, and the king soon became unhappy.Said to her: "I warned you not to talk too much in matters of state: from now on you can no longer go to court." Catherine no longer attended the trial.So the two farmers had to be judged by the king alone.

After hearing the reasons of the two men, the king pronounced: "The calf belongs to the owner of the carriage." The owner of the cow felt that the sentence was extremely unfair, but what could be done: the king said that everything was up to him, and that his words were sacred to all.Seeing that he was so sad, the owner of the inn suggested that he go to the queen, and maybe she would have some solution. So the farmer came to the palace, approached a servant, and asked, "My friend, may I have a word with the queen?" "No," said the servant, "for the king forbids her to do anything."

The farmer went around the garden wall with bricks.When he saw the queen, he climbed over the wall and wept before her about the king's injustice.The queen said: "Let's do this: Tomorrow the king will go out of the city to hunt. There is a lake there. In this season, the lake is dry and there is no water. You will do this tomorrow: You have a fish basket hanging on your waist, and you have a fish basket in your hand. Take a net and pretend to be fishing. The king sees you fishing in such a dry lake, he will first laugh and then ask you why you fish where there is no water. You answer him like this: 'My lord Your Majesty, if a chariot can give birth to calves, fish can be caught in a dry lake.'” The next morning, the farmer came to the dry lake with a fishing basket in his waist and a fishing net in his hand. He sat on the bank, threw the net out, and then dragged it back again, as if he had caught a lot of fish.The king and his attendants passed by, and seeing him like this, the king laughed a lot, and then asked him if he was mad.So the farmer answered what the queen had taught him beforehand. When the king heard this answer, he exclaimed: "My dear fellow, it is not your own words. You have heard it from the queen." The farmer did not deny it, so the king re-sentenced the sentence and returned the calf to the farmer. Then the king called Catherine, and said: "You are meddling again in my affairs, and you know I forbid you to do so. Therefore, go at once to your father. You may take one of your favorite things in the palace. You can go home tonight and be your farmer's wife." Catherine said humbly: "I will obey your orders, I dare not disobey. But, I would like to ask you to give me a grace, please allow me to leave tomorrow. If I leave at night, you and I will be very embarrassed, common people Gossiping too." The king said, "Well, I agree. To-day we will have our last supper together, and you will go away tomorrow morning." What did wise Catherine do?She ordered the cook to prepare roasts, hams, and all drowsy and thirsty things, and the best purple wine in the royal cellars.At supper the king was so full that Catherine poured him bottle after bottle of wine.The king's eyes began to blur, and then he could not speak clearly, and at last he sank down in his easy chair like a pig and fell asleep. Catherine then said to the servants: "You lift up the easy chair and the person lying on it and follow me, and no one talks too much." After leaving the palace, she went straight to the outside of the city. It was midnight. "Come and open the door for me, Daddy, it's me," she called. Hearing his daughter's voice, the old farmer opened the door at once, and said, "Why are you home at this hour? Well, I told you already! I kept your old clothes very well, and they are all in your room." It's hanging on a coat hook inside." "Open the door for me!" said Catherine. "Stop talking nonsense!" The farmer opened the door, and saw the servants carrying in the chair with the king on it. Catherine had the king carried into the room, undressed him, and laid him down on the bed.Then she sent her servants back to the palace, and she herself lay down beside the king. In the middle of the night the king awoke: the bed seemed to him harder than usual, and the sheets had become rough.As he rolled over, he felt his wife beside him.He said, "Catherine, haven't I sent you home already?" "Yes, Your Majesty," she answered, "but it's still dark. Go to sleep, go to sleep." The king fell asleep again.In the morning, he was awakened by the braying of donkeys and sheep, and saw the sun shining through the window.He was surprised to find that this was not the bedroom of the palace.He asked his wife, "Catherine, where are we?" She said: "Your Majesty, didn't you tell me that I could take one of my favorite things in the palace? So I brought you back, and I am looking after you." The king laughed, and they made up again.They returned together to the palace, where they still live, and from that day on the king always brought his wife to court. (Montale Pistoia area)