One sunny morning a little tailor sat sewing by his open window. When he stopped to eat his lunch, he cut two thick slices of bread and covered them with strawberry jam. But before he could take a bite, some flies flew down to taste the jam. “Stop that,” the little tailor cried, “or I’ll swat you!”
The flies kept on eating, so he angrily picked up a piece of cloth and swung it at them. Most of the flies buzzed away-but not all. The little tailor saw that seven of the flies were lying there dead.
“What a strong fellow I am,” he said to himself. “I killed seven flies with one swat. flies at one blow! Think of that!”
He sat and made himself a wide belt on which he sewed these words—SEVEN AT ONE BLOW. He put the belt on and said, “I will show the whole world what a strong fellow I am!” And he set out to do just that. As he walked along the road leading out of town, the little tailor met a giant, sitting on the top of a hill.
“Stop where you are, you miserable little creature!” roared the giant, “or I will squash you with one finger.”
“You’d better not try it, ” the tailor said. “Look at this” He threw open his coat so that the giant could see the words”SEVEN AT ONE BLOW.”
The giant thought the tailor had killed seven men with one blow. Seven men! “Perhaps you are stronger than you look,” the giant said, “but can you do this? ” The giant picked up a huge stone and broke it in half with one hand.
“Nothing to It”replied the clever little tailor. He knew he was not as strong as the giant, but he thought he was smarter. And he was sure that the giant’s eyes were not as sharp as his.
The tailor reached into his bag and took out a stone. “Watch this,” he said to the giant, and he effortlessly crumbled the cheese into many pieces with his thumb, and finer.
“That is pretty good,” the giant admitted. “But let us see if you can carry something really heavy.” He pointed to a huge oak tree that had just been chopped down. “If you are so strong, help me to carry this tree out of the woods”.
“No Trouble at all” the little tailor said, “You just take the trunk on your shoulder. I will carry the branches and the top of the tree because that is the biggest part.”
And so the giant picked up the trunk of the tree. As soon as he turned his back, the tailor hopped up into the branches. Now the giant was carrying the whole tree and the tailor too. The weight was too much even for the giant.
“Look out,” he suddenly shouted, “I’ve got to let my end drop!”
The tailor quickly jumped to the ground and pretended that he had been holding up his end of the tree all along.
The giant wiped his forehead and looked at the tailor with wonder. “You are strong! ” And the giant stomped off into the forest, shaking his head.
Pleased with his cleverness, the tailor found a patch of soft grass and stretched out rest. He fell asleep. While he slept, some of the king’s men came by and read the words on his belt—SEVEN AT ONE BLOW!
“What a strong man!” They thought and ran to the palace to tell the king the news.
“He is just the man I need!” The king declared and sent for the little tailor.
“There are two giants who live in a forest nearby.” the king explained to the tailor. “My people are afraid of them because the giants rob us, kill us and burn everything for miles around. If you can kill those giants, I will give you my daughter for a wife and half of my kingdom.
The little tailor agreed and immediately set out for the woods where the giants lived. When he reached the woods, he found the two asleep under a tree.
One of them was the very giant ha had outsmarted before. The tailor quickly filled his bag with stones and climbed the tree. From a high branch, he dropped one of his stones on the nearest giant and woke p.
“Why did you hit me?” the giant asked his companion angrily.
“I didn’t,” the other giant, “you must be dreaming.”
And so they went back to sleep again. Then the tailor dropped a heavier stone on the second giant. The giant jumped to his feet and grabbed his companion by the throat.
“You threw something at me!” he shouted and knocked the other giant against the tree.
By this time the first giant was just as angry. They began to hit each other with trees and boulders.
Soon they both died. The giants had killed one another. The little tailor returned to the palace with the good news.
“Well, those giants won’t trouble anyone again,” he said to the king. “I don’t mind telling you it was quite a battle. But they didn’t touch a hair on my head.”
As the king had promised, the little tailor and the princess were married. The tailor and the princess were married. The tailor became the ruler of half of the kingdom. And nobody ever dared attack him. After all, they knew he was the man who had killed SEVEN AT ONE BLOW.