Adapted from an old tale

Once upon a time there was a young girl who was so foolish no one wanted to marry her. One day, however, a young man arrived to pay his respects to her, and her mother, beaming with joy, sent her daughter down to the cellar to draw a jug of cider.

As the girl never came back the mother went down to see what had become of her, and found her sitting on the stairs, her head in her hands. By her side the cider was running all over the crooked floor in a zig-zag shaped stream, as she had forgotten to close the tap. “What are you doing there?” asked the mother.

“I was thinking what I shall call my first child after I am married to that young man. All the names in the world are taken already.”

The mother sat down on the staircase beside her daughter and said, “I will think about it with you, my dear.”

The father, who had stayed upstairs with the young man, was surprised that neither his wife nor his daughter came back, and in his turn went down to look for them. He found them both sitting on the stairs, while beside them the cider was running in a zig-zag shaped stream all over the ground as it poured from the open tap.

“What are you doing there? The cider is running all over the cellar,” cried the father.

“We were thinking what we should call the children that our daughter will have when she marries that young man. All the names in the world are taken already.”

“Well,” said the father, “I will think about it with you.”

As neither mother nor daughter nor father came upstairs again, the young man grew impatient, and went down into the cellar to see what they could all be doing. He found them all three sitting on the stairs, while beside them the cider was running all over the ground from the tap, which was wide open. By now the zig-zag shaped stream had nearly become a small river.

“What in the world are you all doing that you don’t come upstairs, and that you let the cider run all over the cellar?”

“Yes, I know, my boy,” said the father, “but if you marry our daughter what shall you call your children? All the names in the world are taken.”

When the young man heard this answer he replied, “Well! Good-bye, I am going away. If I can find three people sillier than you I will come back and marry your daughter.”

So he continued his journey, and after walking a long way he reached an orchard. Then he saw some a woman knocking down walnuts, and trying to throw them into a cart with a fork.

“What are you doing there?” he asked.

“I want to load the cart with my walnuts, but I can’t manage to do it.”

The young man advised her to get a basket and to put the walnuts in it, so as to load them into the cart.

“Well,” he said to himself, “I have already found someone more foolish than those three in the basement.”

So he went on his way, and by-and-by he came to a wood. There he saw a man who wanted to give his pig some acorns to eat, and was trying with all his might to make him climb up the oak tree.

“What are you doing, my good man?” asked the young man.

“I want to make my pig eat some acorns, and I can’t get him to go up the tree,” answered the owner of the pig.

“If you were to climb up and shake down the acorns, the pig would gobble them up.”

“Oh, I never thought of that! Thank you for the suggestion!”

“Here is the second silly,” said the young man to himself.

Some way farther along the road he came upon a man who had never worn any trousers, and who was trying to put on a pair. He had fastened them to a tree and was jumping with all his might up in the air so that he should hit the two legs of the trousers as he came down.

“It would be much better if you held them in your hands,” said the young man, “and then put your legs one after the other in each hole.”

“Dear me, to be sure! You are sharper than I am, for that never occurred to me,” cried the silly man.

Having found three people more foolish than his bride, or her father or her mother, the young man went back to marry the young lady. And in course of time they had a great many children, and managed to find names for each of them.

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