Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm

“ So they set out, but as Fred was fleeter of foot than Kate he was soon ahead of her.
‘I shall be the gainer,’ she said; ‘I shall be foremost when we turn.’
Soon they came to a mountain, and on both sides of the road there were deep cart ruts. ‘There, just see,’ said Kate, ‘how the poor earth is torn and scratched and squeezed; it can never be whole again as long as it lives.’
Then out of the kindness of her heart she took the butter and smeared the ruts right and left, so that they might not be torn by the wheels. ”

“ In the meantime, the beer had been running out of the cask, because Kate had forgotten to turn the tap. As soon as the jug was full, the rest ran all over the cellar floor, till the cask was quite empty.
Kate saw what had happened as soon as she got to the top of the cellar stairs. ‘Humph!’ she cried, ‘what am I to do now, so that Fred shan’t discover it?’
She thought a while, and at last she remembered a sack of fine meal they had left over from the last fair. She would
Kate ran after him, and chased him a good way over the fields. ”

“ It’s too late to go back to the house now; but as you have brought the door so far, you may just carry it further.’
‘I will carry the door, Fred,’ she said. ‘But the apples and the jug of vinegar are too heavy; I will hang them on the door, and it may carry them.’
They now went into the wood to look for the rogues, but they did not find them. As it was dark, they climbed up a tree to spend the night there.
They had hardly settled themselves, before the Pedlars came up. They were the sort of people who take away things which should not be taken, and who find things before they are lost. ”