«Savor the fruit of life, my young friends. It has a sweet taste when it is fresh from the vine, but the taste turns bitter after a time.»
Martok in Star Trek DS9: «Once More Into the Breach»
A slightly edited brothers Grimm fairy tale, using the Margaret Hunt translation as basis.
The Old Man and His Grandson
There was once a very old man whose eyes had grown dim, whose ears were dull of hearing, and whose knees trembled. When he sat at table, he could hardly hold his spoon, and when he tried to eat, he spilled the broth upon the tablecloth or let it run out of his mouth.
His son and his son’s wife were so disgusted by this that they made the old grandfather sit in the corner behind the stove. They gave him his food in an earthenware bowl. He looked toward the table with his eyes full of tears.
Once his trembling hands could not hold the bowl, and it fell to the ground and broke. The young wife scolded him, but he said nothing and only sighed. Then, for a few pence, they bought him a wooden bowl, and from then on he had to eat out of it.
One day the little grandson, scarcely four years old, began to gather together some bits of wood upon the ground.
«What are you doing there?» asked the father.
«I am making a little trough,» answered the child, «for father and mother to eat out of when I am big.»
The man and his wife looked at each other for a while and said nothing. Then they brought the old grandfather back to the table. From that day on they let him eat with them and said nothing if he did spill a little of anything.