Young Hans and his family lived by the sea, and Hans`s father was a fisherman. At one time, the fishing provided a reasonable living, but as the Spanish trawlers slowly swept the seabed clean the fishing declined, and sometimes Hans` father had difficulty
providing food for the table. To help out Hans started to catch sea birds by scrambling about on the cliffs with a piece of fishing net, and rob their nests of eggs, and as the fishing declined even further, and his father`s boat returned to port with little or no catch, Hans` sea birds and eggs became the mainstay of his family One day, as Hans was returning home carrying a couple of Terns (which he had caught on the cliffs) he met a school friend - Wilhelm. Now Wilhelm`s parents had plenty of money, so Wilhelm never had to do things like catching birds and robbing their nests to help out family food supply. Consequently he had quite a bit of spare time for hanging about, and so, although he was really quite a nice lad, Hans` parents thought he was a bit of
a time waster and they didn`t approve of him very much. Wilhelm had been ill for several weeks, and Hans was glad to see him about again.
Now Hans had his two Terns in a sack, and Wilhelm was carrying a paper bag, and each eyed the other`s burden with curiosity. "What have you got in the sack, Hans?" asked Wilhelm. Hans opened the sack and showed him the two Ternst and told him they were for the pot. "What do they taste like?" asked Wilhelm."Oh, they`re just like chicken but with a different flavour" said Hans. "Anyway, what have you got there?" "Best Bratwurst sausage" said Wilhelm, opening his paper bag and showing Hans two large and succulent sausages. "Here, try a bit", and breaking off a generous lump he gave it to Hans. Hans, who was not used to such luxuries chewed it slowly and thought it was lovely, and said so. "Tell you what", said Wilhelm. "You give me one of those Terns to try, and I`ll give you one of these Bratwurst". Hans had no hesitation in saying "It`s a deal"; the swap was made and Hans
carried on home.
When Hans arrived home, the whole family were waiting expectantly, hoping for a good tuck in to at least one sea bird apiece, and when Hans placed his solitary remaining Tern on the table, there were loud expressions of dismay and disappointment all
round. His mother said "You`ve been out all morning, and you`ve only managed to bring one home with you?. I suppose you`ve been wasting time talking to that no-good Wilhelm. You know I don`t like you wasting time with him, but I heard he`s been ill lately. How is he these days?. Hans put the Bratwurst sausage on the table and said
"Oh", I`m afraid he`s taken a Tern for the Wurst".
