Reading Notes: Czech Stories, Part B

Notes for The Key of Gold by Josef Baudis

"Nine at a Blow"

• Tailor 
• Mends stockings when he doesn't have a job to work on 
• His table is covered with flies one night 
• He kills nine of them at once with a stocking (nine at a blow)
• He travels 
• He gets "nine at a blow" inscribed on his belt 
• He runs into a boy that asks him to buy a finch, which he does 
• He goes to a farm and gets sour milk and cheese from the woman on it 
• He reaches a town and takes a nap 
• A giant sees him and asks "have you really killed nine at a blow" 
• Giant challenges tailor to a trial to see who is stronger 
• Giant says he will throw a stone and it won't come down for an hour 
• Tailor says the stone he throws won't ever come down 
• "Instead of casting a stone, the tailor let the finch go, and, of course, it didn't come back again."
• Gaint says he will crush a stone to powder 
• Tailor says he will squeeze water from stone 
• "The tailor took the cheese and squeezed it till the water oozed out of it."
• Giant agrees that the tailor is stronger 
• They travel together 
• Giant bends a cherry tree to eat fruit while the tailor is in the tree 
• The tailor is flung when the giant lets the tree go, and the tailor claims he knows how to fly 
• They reach a town where everyone is mourning because a dragon has taken over 
• The people who kill the dragon will be rewarded, so the giant and the tailor offer to do it 
• They have a giant hammer and pair of tongs made  
• The giant kills the dragon 
• The tailor is mad and tells him to jump off the church roof so he can fly 
• The giant breaks his neck 
• The tailor gets all the money for himself 

Dragon by Alok Ranjan Art (source: Wikimedia). 

"Old Nick and Kitty" 

• Kitty
• Old maid-servant 
• Lives on a farm 
• Wants to get married 
• Nobody wants to touch her 
• Goes to every dance
• Wants to dance with "Old Nick" 
• A youth dances (Old Nick?) with her when the clock strikes 11
• Everyone laughs at them 
• She won't let him go when he wants to leave 
• He takes her to Hell 
• Hell doesn't want her 
• Nick 
• The devil?
• Tries to give Kitty to a shepherd 
• The shepherd doesn't want her 
• Offers the shepherd lots of money 
• Shepherd accepts 
• Shepherd 
• Good-looking 
• Has lots of money 
• Wants to throw Kitty into a pond 
• She doesn't drown