The sun was high when the rich man got up and leaned out of his window
and saw, on the opposite side of the way, a new clean-looking house
with red tiles and bright windows where the old hut used to be. He was
very much astonished, and called his wife and said to her, “Tell me,
what can have happened? Last night there was a miserable little hut
standing there, and to-day there is a beautiful new house. Run over and
see how that has come to pass.”

So his wife went and asked the poor man, and he said to her, “Yesterday
evening a traveler came here and asked for a night’s lodging, and this
morning when he took leave of us he granted us three wishes—eternal
happiness, health during this life and our daily bread as well, and
besides this, a beautiful new house instead of our old hut.”

When the rich man’s wife heard this, she ran back in haste and told her
husband how it had happened. The man said, “I could tear myself to
pieces! If I had but known that! That traveler came to our house too,
and wanted to sleep here, and I sent him away.” “Quick!” said his wife,
“get on your horse. You can still catch the man up, and then you must
ask to have three wishes granted to you.”

The rich man followed the good counsel and galloped away on his horse,
and soon came up with the Lord. He spoke to him softly and pleasantly,
and begged him not to take it amiss that he had not let him in
directly; he was looking for the front-door key, and in the meantime
the stranger had gone away, if he returned the same way he must come
and stay with him. “Yes,” said the Lord; “if I ever come back again, I
will do so.” Then the rich man asked if might not wish for three things
too, as his neighbor had done? “Yes,” said the Lord, he might, but it
would not be to his advantage, and he had better not wish for anything;
but the rich man thought that he could easily ask for something which
would add to his happiness, if he only knew that it would be granted. So the Lord said to him, “Ride home, then, and three wishes which you
shall form, shall be fulfilled.”

The rich man had now gained what he wanted, so he rode home, and began
to consider what he should wish for. As he was thus thinking he let the
bridle fall, and the horse began to caper about, so that he was
continually disturbed in his meditations, and could not collect his
thoughts at all. He patted its neck, and said, “Gently, Lisa,” but the
horse only began new tricks. Then at last he was angry, and cried quite
impatiently, “I wish your neck was broken!” Directly he had said the
words, down the horse fell on the ground, and there it lay dead and
never moved again. And thus was his first wish fulfilled. As he was
miserly by nature, he did not like to leave the harness lying there; so
he cut it off, and put it on his back; and now he had to go on foot. “I
have still two wishes left,” said he, and comforted himself with that
thought. And now as he was walking slowly through the sand, and the sun was
burning hot at noon-day, he grew quite hot-tempered and angry. The
saddle hurt his back, and he had not yet any idea what to wish for. “If
I were to wish for all the riches and treasures in the world,” said he
to himself, “I should still to think of all kinds of other things later
on, I know that, beforehand. But I will manage so that there is nothing
at all left me to wish for afterwards.” Then he sighed and said, “Ah,
if I were but that Bavarian peasant, who likewise had three wishes
granted to him, and knew quite well what to do, and in the first place
wished for a great deal of beer, and in the second for as much beer as
he was able to drink, and in the third for a barrel of beer into the
bargain.”

Many a time he thought he had found it, but then it seemed to him to
be, after all, too little. Then it came into his mind, what an easy
life his wife had, for she stayed at home in a cool room and enjoyed
herself. This really did vex him, and before he was aware, he said, “I
just wish she was sitting there on this saddle, and could not get off
it, instead of my having to drag it along on my back.” And as the last
word was spoken, the saddle disappeared from his back, and he saw that
his second wish had been fulfilled. Then he really did feel warm. He
began to run and wanted to be quite alone in his own room at home, to
think of something really large for his last wish. But when he arrived
there and opened the parlour-door, he saw his wife sitting in the
middle of the room on the saddle, crying and complaining, and quite
unable to get off it. So he said, “Do bear it, and I will wish for all
the riches on earth for thee, only stay where thou art.” She, however,
called him a fool, and said, “What good will all the riches on earth do
me, if I am to sit on this saddle? Thou hast wished me on it, so thou
must help me off.” So whether he would or not, he was forced to let his
third wish be that she should be quit of the saddle, and able to get
off it, and immediately the wish was fulfilled. So he got nothing by it
but vexation, trouble, abuse, and the loss of his horse; but the poor
people lived happily, quietly, and piously until their happy death. 88 The Singing, Springing Lark

There was once on a time a man who was about to set out on a long
journey, and on parting he asked his three daughters what he should
bring back with him for them. Whereupon the eldest wished for pearls,
the second wished for diamonds, but the third said, “Dear father, I
should like a singing, soaring lark.” The father said, “Yes, if I can
get it, you shall have it,” kissed all three, and set out. Now when the
time had come for him to be on his way home again, he had brought
pearls and diamonds for the two eldest, but he had sought everywhere in
vain for a singing, soaring lark for the youngest, and he was very
unhappy about it, for she was his favorite child. Then his road lay
through a forest, and in the midst of it was a splendid castle, and
near the castle stood a tree, but quite on the top of the tree, he saw
a singing, soaring lark. “Aha, you come just at the right moment!” he
said, quite delighted, and called to his servant to climb up and catch
the little creature. But as he approached the tree, a lion leapt from
beneath it, shook himself, and roared till the leaves on the trees
trembled. “He who tries to steal my singing, soaring lark,” he cried,
“will I devour.” Then the man said, “I did not know that the bird
belonged to thee.