I don't have all the ingredients to make this soup, but I am going to get them and give it a try. Unlike Kaspar in the story of The Boy Who Wouldn't Eat His Soup, I love soup!
That story is from Struwwelpeter, the scariest collection of German Kinder-stories you have ever seen. Wanna see the cover?
That's Shaggy Peter there, the boy who will not groom himself, and thus finds himself generally disliked. Imagine a country full of children brought up on a story book that includes the following stories:
Die Geschichte vom Suppen-Kaspar, a fat and happy little boy suddenly refuses to eat his soup, and in five days wastes away and dies! So sad! Here's a picture of the page:
The last four lines translate to something like this:
Look at him, now the fourth day's come!
He scarcely weighs a sugar-plum;
He's like a little bit of thread,
And on the fifth day, he was - dead!
Other stories include a warning to small Thumb-suckers that if they don't quit it, a traveling tailor will jump into the house and cut off their thumbs with his gigantic scissors; a small girl who plays with matches and immolates herself; and Jonny-Head-in-Air, who goes about NOT watching where he's going (daydreaming) and falls in the river and almost drowns.
These cheerful tales (the pictures are hilariously gruesome) explain a lot about the German character!
But as I said, I am going to make and eat some delicious soup. While I am at it, I will NOT play with matches, suck my thumbs, or walk around daydreaming near a river. I intend to live a good and virtuous life and avoid traveling tailors too!
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