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The Story of the Wild Huntsmen

Struwwelpeter - original illustration

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From Heinrich Hoffmann: Slovenly Peter (Struwwelpeter), Translation by Mark Twain

The Story of the Wild Huntsman

This is the Wild Huntsman that shoots the hares
With the grass-green coat he always wears:
With game-bag, powder-horn and gun,
He's going out to have some fun.

He finds it hard, without a pair
Of spectacles, to shoot the hare:
He put his spectacles upon his nose, and said,
"Now I will shoot the hares, and kill them dead."
The hare sits snug in leaves and grass
And laughs to see the green man pass.

Now, as the sun grew very hot
And he a heavy gun had got,
He lay down underneath a tree
And went to sleep, as you may see.
And, while he slept like any top,
The little hare came, hop, hop, hop,
Took gun and spectacles, and then
Softly on tiptoe went off again.

The green man wakes, and sees her place
The spectacles upon her face.
She pointed the gun at the hunter's heart,
Who jumped up at once with a start.
He cries, and screams, and runs away,
"Help me, good people, help! I pray."

At last he stumbled at the well
Head over ears, and in he fell.
The hare stopp'd short, took aim, and hark!
Bang went the gun! - she miss'd her mark!

The poor man's wife was drinking up
Her coffee in her coffee-cup;
The gun shot cup and saucer through;
"O dear!" cried she, "what shall I do?"
Hiding, close by the cottage there,
Was the hare's own child, the little hare;
When he heard the shot, he quickly arose,
And while he stood upon his toes,
The coffee fell and burn'd his nose;
"O dear," he cried, "what burns me so?"
And held up the spoon with his little toe.

Heinrich Hoffmann, the creator of "Slovenly Peter", worked as neurologist in Frankfurt.

You find the stories of "Slovenly Peter" in the Internet
in German at gutenberg.spiegel.de/hoffmanh/struwwel/struwwel.htm,
in German and Englisch at www.fln.vcu.edu/struwwel/struwwel.html and
in English, French and German at www.struwwelpeter.com.

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You can buy different editions of "Slovenly Peter" or "Struwwelpeter"
via Abebooks US/Canada
via Abebooks UK

The gruesome Struwwelpeter stories have intrigued illustrators and translators up to today. The latest 2006 version by Bob Staake is available
via amazon.com or
via amazon.co.uk

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