Chapter 1 The Seven Sw（2 / 2）

Then it was Jergli’s turn to speak,

“If it be not, it’s at least his mother, or else it’s the Devil’s own step-brother.”

And now Marli had a bright thought, and said to Veitli,

“Advance, Veitli, advance, advance, and I behind will hold the lance.”

Veitli, however, did not attend to that, and Jackli said,

“Tis Schulz’s place the first to be, no one deserves that honor but he.”

Then Master Schulz plucked up his courage, and said, gravely,

“Then let us boldly advance to the fight, and thus we shall show our valour and might.”

Hereupon they all together set on the dragon.Master Schulz crossed himself and prayed for God’s assistance, but as all this was of no avail, and he was getting nearer and nearer to the enemy, he screamed “Oho! oho! ho! ho! ho!” in the greatest anguish.This awakened the hare, which in great alarm darted swiftly away.When Master Schulz saw her thus flying from the field of battle, he cried in his joy.

“Quick, Veitli, quick, look there, look there, the monster’s nothing but a hare!”

But the Swabian allies went in search of further adventures, and came to the Moselle, a mossy, quiet, deep river, over which there are few bridges, and which in many places people have to cross in boats.As the seven Swabians did not know this, they called to a man who was working on the opposite side of the river, to know how people contrived to get across.The distance and their way of speaking made the man unable to understand what they wanted, and he said “What? what?” in the way people speak in the neighborhood of Treves.

Master Schulz thought he was saying, “Wade, wade through the water,” and as he was the first, began to set out and went into the moselle.It was not long before he sank in the mud and the deep waves which drove against him, but his hat was blown on the opposite shore by the wind, and a frog sat down beside it, and croaked “Wat, wat, wat.”The other six on the opposite side heard that, and said, “Oho, comrades, Master Schulz is calling us; if he can wade across, why cannot we?”So they all jumped into the water together in a great hurry, and were drowned, and thus one frog took the lives of all six of them, and not one of the Swabian allies ever reached home again.