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But when it came to the point, the woman was afraid to let her husband go with the cow, fearing he would spend the money in the town in drinking. Hear now! father," said she, "I think it will be best for me to go, and then I can sell my old hen at the same time." As thou wilt," answered the husband, "but act with discretion, and remember thou must have ten dollars for the cow.' "Oh! that I shall," said the wife, and off she went with the cow and the hen.

Not far from the town she met a butcher. going to sell thy cow, mother?" asked he.

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66 'Art thou "Yes, that's what I am going to do," answered she. How much dost thou want for it?" I want a mark for my cow, and my hen you shall have for ten dollars.”* “ Well! that's cheap," said the butcher; but I am not in want of the hen, and that thou canst always get rid of when thou comest to the town; but for the cow I am willing to give thee a mark." So they settled the bargain, and the woman got her mark; but when she came into the town, there was not a person who would give her ten dollars for an old lean hen. She therefore went back to the butcher, and said: "Hear, my good man, I cannot get rid of my hen, so thou must take that also, as thou hast got the cow, and then I can go home with the money."

"Well! well! I dare say we shall strike a bargain for that also," said he. Hereupon he invited her in, gave her something to eat, and as much brandy as she could drink. "This is a delightful butcher," thought she, and kept on drinking so long that at last she completely lost her

senses.

What now did the butcher do? While the woman was sleeping herself sober, he dipped her into a tar barrel, then rolled her in a heap of feathers, and laid her down in a soft place, outside the house. When she awoke and found herself feathered from head to foot, she began to wonder, and said to herself: What can be the matter with me? Is it I, or is it somebody else? No, this can never be me, this must be some strange, large bird. But what shall I do to know if it is really myself or not? Yes, now I know how

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* The dollar is equal to six marks.

I can find out whether it is myself. If the calves lick me and the dog does not bark at me, when I go home, then it is really myself"

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The dog had hardly caught a glimpse of the strange animal that was entering the yard, before he set up a terrible barking; and the woman felt far from easy. I begin to think it is not myself," said she; and when she went into the cattle-house, the calves would not lick her, as they smelt the strong tar. "No, I see now it cannot be me, it must be some wonderful strange bird, I may as well fly away." So creeping up on the top of the store-room she began to flap with her arms as if they were wings, and tried to rise in the air. When the man saw this he seized his rifle, went out into the yard and was just taking aim. “Oh! no," exclaimed the woman, "don't shoot me, father, it is I, indeed it is." "Is it thou?" said her husband; don't stand up there like a fool, but come down and give an account of the money." The woman crept down again, but no money could she give him, as she had got none. She looked for the mark the butcher had given her for her cow, but even this she had lost while she was drunk. When the husband heard the whole story, he was so angry that he swore he would leave her and everything, and never return, unless he could find three other women who were as great fools as herself.

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He set out accordingly, and had not gone far on the road, before he saw a woman running in and out of a newlybuilt cottage with an empty sieve in her hand. Every time she ran in, she threw her apron over the sieve as if there were something in it. "What is it you are so busy about, mother?" said the man. "Oh! I am only carrying a little sunshine into my new house; but I know not how it is; when I am out of doors I have plenty of sun in my sieve, but when I come in it is all away. When I was in my old hut, I had sun enough; although I never carried any in. If I only knew of any one who would bring sunshine into my house, I would willingly give him a hundred dollars." "I think there must be a way for that," answered the man. If you have got an axe, I will soon procure you sun enough." He got the axe and made a couple of windows in the house, which the carpenter had forgotten to do. Immediately the

sun came in, and he got a hundred dollars. ONE," said the man as he again walked on.

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Some time after, he came to a house and heard from the outside a terrible bellowing and noise within. He entered and saw a woman beating her husband about the head with a washerwoman's batlet. He had got a new shirt over his head, but could not get it on, because there was no slit made for the neck. "What's the matter here," cried the stranger at the door: "are you killing your husband, mother?" No, Lord preserve us," said the woman, "I am only helping him to put on his new shirt." The man struggled and cried: "The Lord preserve and take pity upon all who put on a new shirt. If any one will only teach my wife to cut a slit in the proper place, I will give him a hundred dollars." "I think there must be a way for that; come bring a pair of scissors," said the stranger. The woman gave him the scissors, and he immediately cut a hole in the shirt, and got a hundred dollars. There is the SECOND," said the man

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as he went on his way.

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After walking on for some time he at length came to a farm-house where he thought of stopping to rest. he entered the room the woman of the house asked him "Where he was from?" "I come from Ringerige," answered the man, Oh, indeed! what, do you say you come from Himmerige (Heaven), then of course you know the second Peter, my poor late husband?" The woman, who was very deaf, had had three husbands, all named Peter. The first husband had used her ill, and therefore she thought that only the second, who had been kind to her, could be in heaven. Know him, aye, and well too," answered the man from Ringerige. "How does he fare above?" asked the woman further. "Ah! but poorly," said the man. He goes wandering from one farm to another to get a little food, and has scarcely clothes to his back; and as to money, that is quite out of the question." Oh God, be merciful to him!" exclaimed the poor woman, "I am sure he need not go so miserable, for there was plenty left after him. have got a whole room full of his clothes, also a box of money, which I have taken care of, that belonged to my late husband. If you will take charge of all this for him, you shall have a cart and a horse to draw it. The horse he

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can keep up there, and the cart also; he then can sit in it and drive from one farm to another, for he was never so poor that he was obliged to walk." So the man from Ringerige got a whole cart-load of clothes, and a little box of bright silver-money, with as much provision as he liked to take. When he had filled the cart, he got up in it and drove away

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"That was the THIRD," said he. But in the fields was the woman's third husband ploughing, who, when he saw a person he knew nothing of, coming from the yard with horse and cart, hurried home, and asked his wife who it was that was driving away with the dun horse. Oh, that was a man from Himmerige (Heaven)," said she; “he told me that things went so badly with my second Peter, my poor husband; that he goes begging from one farm to another, and that he had neither food nor clothing; so I sent him a load of old things that were left after him."

But the box of silver-money she said nothing about. The man seeing how matters stood, saddled a horse, and set off at full gallop. It was not long before he was close behind the man in the cart, who, on observing him, turned off with the horse into a little wood, pulled out a handful of the horse's tail, ran up a small hill with it, and tied it to a birch tree; then laid himself down under the tree, and kept staring up at the clouds. "Well!" cried he, as the man on horseback approached him, "never have I seen such a thing before in my life- Peter the third stood a while staring at him and wondering what he was about. At length he asked: "What art thou lying there for, gazing and gaping?"

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No, never have I seen anything like it," said the other. "There is a man just gone up to heaven on a dun horse; here is some of the tail hanging in the birch, which he left behind, and there up in the clouds you can see the dun horse.' Peter the third looked first at the man, then up at the clouds, and said: I see nothing but some hair of a horse's tail hanging in the birch-tree." No, you cannot see it where you stand," said the other, "but come and lie down here where I am, and look straight up, and you must continue gazing for some time, without turning your eyes from the clouds.' While Peter lay quite still staring up at the clouds, the man from Ringerige sprang upon his

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horse and galloped off as fast as he could, both with that and the cart. When it began to rattle along the road, Peter jumped up, but he was at first so bewildered by this adventure, that he did not think of pursuing the man who had run off with his horse, until it was too late to overtake him. Peter then returned home to his wife quite chapfallen. When she asked him what he had done with the other horse, he said: "I gave it to the man that he might take it to, Peter the second; for I thought it was not becoming for him to sit in a cart and drive about from one farm to another up in heaven. Now he can sell the cart, buy a carriage, and drive a pair of horses." "How I thank you for that, Peter; never did I think you were so reasonable a man," said his wife.

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When the man from Ringerige returned home with his two hundred dollars, a cart full of clothes, and a box of money, he saw that his land had been ploughed and sown. The first question he put to his wife was, where she had got the seed from to sow the fields with. "Oh!" exclaimed she, I have always heard say, 'that what you sow, you shall reap,' so I took the salt we had left from the winter, and sowed that; and if we only get rain soon, I don't doubt but it will come up, and yield many a bushel." "A fool thou art, and a fool thou wilt be as long as thou livest," said her husband; "but there is no help, and others are no wiser than thou."

THE COCK AND THE HEN IN THE NUT-WOOD.

A COCK and a hen went once into a wood to pluck nuts, when the hen got a piece of a nutshell in her throat, and lay gasping, and flapping her wings. The cock ran to fetch some water for her, and came to the spring and said: "My dear spring, pray give me some water; the water I will give to Tuppen, my hen, that lies for dead in the nut-wood." The spring answered: "Thou wilt get no water from me till I get leaves from thee." Then the cock ran to the limetree, and said: "My dear lime-tree, pray give me some leaves; the leaves I will give to the spring, the spring will give me water, the water I will give to Tuppen, my hen,

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