Tales from the Brothers Grimm and the Sisters Weird by Vivian Vande Velde Read Free Book Online

workshop, rechecking the glaze on the cups and bowls and jugs that had come out of the kiln the day before.
    Jack realized that he didn't own anything worth leaving to anybody.
    There was a loud crash from the kitchen. Jack heard Effie cry out, then there was the sound of glass breaking and the frantic squawking of a chicken. "You get back here," Effie shouted.
    "Effie?" her father called.
    Jack saw Effie come back into the workshop, holding by the legs a flapping, squawking, feather-shedding hen. "She did it again," Effie said, shaking the hen. "The miserable little beast. I took off my gold bracelet before I started working and this ... this ... THING ... ate it."
    Her father pried open the hen's beak. "I can't see it, Effie," he said. He took the hen from his daughter and plunked her down on the table. "Lay," he commanded.
    The hen protested some more.
    "
Lay!
" he shouted.
    And then, to Jack's amazement, the hen laid a golden egg.
    "You wretched thing," Effie told the hen. "I liked my bracelet better." And to her father she said, "We should have
her
for breakfast and be done with."
    "Now, now," her father said. "She was a gift from my brother." He let go of the hen, who ruffled her feathers and half flew, half ran to the shelf along the back of the table.
    Leaning forward to see through the crack where the door didn't meet the oven, Jack saw the hen brush against a cloth-draped object that stood about as tall as Jack's arm was long. From this mysterious-looking object there came a sound somewhere between human voice and musical notes, as though the hen had jostled ... what? Something magical, Jack was sure.
    Just while Jack was wondering why someone would keep a magical musical anything bundled up in the kitchen, Effie said, "And that singing harp! A gift from your sister. We need to get a better class of relatives."
    A gold-egg-laying hen!
Jack thought.
A dinging harp!
He thought of how, minutes ago, he had come to the realization that he didn't own anything worthwhile. Wouldn't his mother stop complaining that he didn't have a job if he owned a gold-egg-laying hen? Wouldn't his friends be impressed by a singing harp?
    "Now, now, Effie," Effie's father said again. "We can't just throw them away. Come Christmas I'll wrap them up in pretty paper and give them away as door prizes at the Potters' Guild Christmas party."
    "That's four months away," Effie protested.
    "So long as we keep the harp covered," her father said, "and we're careful not to leave gold lying around—"
    But Effie wasn't finished. "And what about that magic cauldron-of-plenty your aunt gave us that never runs out of food," she demanded, "except the only food it has is pickled liver? I'm always tripping over that thing."
    "Well, you don't need to keep it in the kitchen," her father said. "Here, I'll help you move it...."
    Jack watched as the two of them moved out of the room, then he turned his attention to the wonderful hen. It was settling down on the shelf, looking ready—in Jack's estimation—to lay another egg. It wasn't fair, he thought, for the giants to have so much good fortune when he had none. He leaned against the oven door for a better look, and the door swung open and Jack fell out.
    The hen began to cluck nervously.
    "
Shh,
" Jack said.
    But this only made the hen think he was a snake, and she squawked even louder.
    Jack came closer, still going "
Shh,
" intending nothing more than to try to hush the hen, but now the singing harp became nervous, too. From beneath its cloth draping it asked in a silvery, musical voice, "What's happening?"
    "
Shh,
" Jack said again. "I'm not supposed to be here. You'll get me in trouble."
    And then the harp, being a clever harp, knew what that meant. "
THIEF!
" the harp cried. "
THIEF! THIEF! THIEF!
"
    From down the hall Effie's father echoed, "Thief?" and Jack thought,
Well. Why not?
So he grabbed the hen with one hand and the singing harp, cover and all, with the other and jumped out the window,