Brides On Their Trial

by The Brothers Grimm

　　There was once a young shepherd who wished much to marry, and wasacquainted with three sisters who were all equally pretty, so that itwas difficult to him to make a choice, and he could not decide to givethe preference to any one of them. Then he asked his mother for advice,and she said, "Invite all three, and set some cheese before them, andwatch how they eat it." The youth did so; the first, however, swallowedthe cheese with the rind on; the second hastily cut the rind off thecheese, but she cut it so quickly that she left much good cheese withit, and threw that away also; the third peeled the rind off carefully,and cut neither too much nor too little. The shepherd told all thisto his mother, who said, "Take the third for thy wife." This he did,and lived contentedly and happily with her.