The Three Army－surgeons

Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm

There were once three army－surgeons who reckoned that they hadnothing more to learn about the art of surgery．They were on their travels．and stopped for the night at an inn．The landlord asked them where they had come from and where they were going，and they answered，“We’ re on our travels and living by our skill．”“Well，just show me what you do，”said the landlord．The first said he would cut off his hand and put it back on again next morning and make it heal；the second said he would tear out his heart and put it back in again next morning so that it would heal；the third said he would gouge out his eyes，and they too would heal when he replacedthem next morning．“If you can do that，”said the landlord，“then you’ ve nothing more to learn．”Now they had with them an ointment which was able to close and heal any wound they smeared it on，and they always carried the flask containing it wherever they went．So they cut from their bodies the hand and the heart and the eyes asthey had said they would，put them all together on a plate and gave it to the landlord；and the landlord gave it to a maidservant，telling her to put it aside in the larder and keep it carefully．But this maidservant secretly had a sweetheart who was a soldier．So when the landlord and the three surgeons and everyone else in the house were asleep，the soldier came and asked her for something toeat．So the girl opened the larder and brought in something from it，and she was so much in love with him that she forgot to close the larder door．She sat down with her sweetheart at the table and they had a good chat，but as she sat there without a care in the world the cat came creeping in，found the larder open，snatched the hand and the heart and the eyes that belonged to the three surgeons andmade off with them．So when the soldier had finished eating and thegirl got up to clear away the dishes and lock the larder，she saw at once that the plate the landlord had given her to look after was empty．She took fright and said to her young man：“Oh，heaven save me，what am I to do？The hand’ s gone，and the heart and the eyes aregone，whatever will happen to me tomorrow morning！”“Stop crying，”he said，“I’ ll get you out of this．There’ s a thief hanging on the gallows out there，and I’ ll cut his hand off；which hand was it？”“The right hand．”So the girl gave him a sharp knife and he wentoutside，cut the poor sinner’ s right hand off and brought it in．