Author: Brothers Grimm

Once there was a cook named Grethel, who wore shoes with red bows. When she walked out in them, she turned this way and that, thinking, "You really are a pretty girl!" When she got home, she drank a glass of wine in her happiness, and since wine makes you hungry, she tasted the best of whatever she was cooking until she was satisfied, saying, "The cook must know what the food is like."

One day, her master said, "Grethel, a guest is coming this evening; prepare two chickens very nicely for me."

"I'll take care of it, master," Grethel replied. She killed two chickens, scalded them, plucked them, put them on the spit, and in the evening set them by the fire to roast. The chickens started to turn brown and were almost ready, but the guest hadn't arrived yet. Grethel called out to her master, "If the guest doesn't come soon, I'll have to take the chickens off the fire. It would be a shame if they aren't eaten right when they're juiciest."