ce dwelt a rich peasant, who was
noted in all the neighborhood for his shrewdness. No one could get the
better of him in a bargain, and no man managed his farm with such
extraordinary success. His crops always seemed to flourish when the
whole country round was desolated with the blight; his hay was sure to
be got in the very night before a flood swept away the ricks of his
neighbors; his cows gave the most milk, his oxen were the fattest, and
his fields the most fruitful of the whole valley. In short, Wise Peter,
for so he was called, became wealthy year after year, in a way which
made his less fortunate neighbors shake their heads enviously, declaring
"that such marvellous good luck could only be obtained by a bargain with
the Evil One, or the assistance of gnomes." Whenever any of these
stories came to the ears of Wise Peter, he would smile and say, "Ah! who
knows, indeed!" but not a word more would he utter.

Among his other possessions, Wise Peter owned an immense field, which
was planted entirely with cabbages. If one stood in the middle and
gazed around, nothing but cabbages and more cabbages grew, as far as the
eye could reach; and as the fat burghers of the town were all extremely
fond of sauerkraut, these were a source of great profit.

It happened that Peter had a wife as well known for her folly and empty
head, as her husband for his sagacity; and as he was rightly named Wise
Peter, so was she equally well called Silly Catharine. How the two came
to be united was a mystery to every one; for certain it is, that Silly
Catharine had nothing to recommend her to a sensible man, but her being
young and pretty.

Now Silly Catharine, who was as witless as she could well be, was
fonder of cabbages than anything else in the world. She ate sauerkraut
for breakfast, cabbage soup for dinner, fried cabbage for supper, and
boiled cabbage for a noonday treat. Not even the constant scoldings of
her husband, or the jeers of the neighbors at her folly, could distress
her in any great degree, if she had only plenty of cabbages.

One morning, Wise Peter loaded his wagon with grain and started off to
sell it at the distant market town, a good day's journey to and from the
village. "Now, Catharine," he said to his wife as he departed, "I want
you to keep your wits about you, such as you possess, while I am gone;
therefore attend to me. You must give orders that the men reap the
wheat in the large field, take care that the young