Grimms' Fairy Tales

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taste bitter,' said he, 'but I will just finish the jacket before I
take a bite.' He laid the bread near him, sewed on, and in his joy, made
bigger and bigger stitches. In the meantime the smell of the sweet jam
rose to where the flies were sitting in great numbers, and they were
attracted and descended on it in hosts. 'Hi! who invited you?' said the
little tailor, and drove the unbidden guests away. The flies, however,
who understood no German, would not be turned away, but came back
again in ever-increasing companies. The little tailor at last lost all
patience, and drew a piece of cloth from the hole under his work-table,
and saying: 'Wait, and I will give it to you,' struck it mercilessly on
them. When he drew it away and counted, there lay before him no fewer
than seven, dead and with legs stretched out. 'Are you a fellow of that
sort?' said he, and could not help admiring his own bravery. 'The whole
town shall know of this!' And the little tailor hastened to cut himself
a girdle, stitched it, and embroidered on it in large letters: 'Seven at
one stroke!' 'What, the town!' he continued, 'the whole world shall hear
of it!' and his heart wagged with joy like a lamb's tail. The tailor