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evening the master said to the shepherds: 'Now come, all of you, eat, |
drink, and make merry. I will watch the flocks myself to-night in your |
stead.' Then he went out to spend the night with the flocks. |
When midnight struck the wolves howled and the dogs barked, and the |
wolves spoke in their own tongue, saying: |
'Shall we come in and work havoc, and you too shall eat flesh?' And |
the dogs answered in their tongue: 'Come in, and for once we shall have |
enough to eat.' |
Now amongst the dogs there was one so old that he had only two teeth |
left in his head, and he spoke to the wolves, saying: 'So long as I have |
my two teeth still in my head, I will let no harm be done to my master.' |
All this the master heard and understood, and as soon as morning dawned |
he ordered all the dogs to be killed excepting the old dog. The farm |
servants wondered at this order, and exclaimed: 'But surely, sir, that |
would be a pity?' |
The master answered: 'Do as I bid you'; and made ready to return home |
with his wife, and they mounted their horses, her steed being a mare. |
As they went on their way, it happened that the husband rode on ahead, |
while the wife was a little way behind. The husband's horse, seeing |
this, neighed, and said to the mare: 'Come along, make haste; why are |
you so slow?' And the mare answered: 'It is very easy for you, you carry |
only your master, who is a thin man, but I carry my mistress, who is so |
fat that she weights as much as three.' When the husband heard that he |
looked back and laughed, which the wife perceiving, she urged on the |
mare till she caught up with her husband, and asked him why he laughed. |
'For nothing at all,' he answered; 'just because it came into my head.' |
She would not be satisfied with this answer, and urged him more and more |
to tell her why he had laughed. But he controlled himself and said: 'Let |
me be, wife; what ails you? I do not know myself why I laughed.' But the |
more he put her off, the more she tormented him to tell her the cause of |
his laughter. At length he said to her: 'Know, then, that if I tell it |
you I shall immediately and surely die.' But even this did not quiet |
her; she only besought him the more to tell her. |
Meanwhile they had reached home, and before getting down from his horse |
the man called for a coffin to be brought; and when it was there he |
placed it in front of the house, and said to his wife: |
'See, I will lay myself down in this coffin, and will then tell you why |
I laughed, for as soon as I have told you I shall surely die.' So he lay |
down in the coffin, and while he took a last look around him, his old |
dog came out from the farm and sat down by him, and whined. When the |
master saw this, he called to his wife: 'Bring a piece of bread to give |
to the dog.' The wife brought some bread and threw it to the dog, but he |
would not look at it. Then the farm cock came and pecked at the bread; |
but the dog said to it: 'Wretched glutton, you can eat like that when |
you see that your master is dying?' The cock answered: 'Let him die, if |
he is so stupid. I have a hundred wives, which I call together when I |
find a grain of corn, and as soon as they are there I swallow it myself; |
should one of them dare to be angry, I would give her a lesson with my |
beak. He has only one wife, and he cannot keep her in order.' |
As soon as the man understood this, he got up out of the coffin, seized |
a stick, and called his wife into the room, saying: 'Come, and I will |
tell you what you so much want to know'; and then he began to beat her |
with the stick, saying with each blow: 'It is that, wife, it is that!' |
And in this way he taught her never again to ask why he had laughed. |
The Boy Who Could Keep A Secret |
Once upon a time there lived a poor widow who had one little boy. At |
first sight you would not have thought that he was different from a |
thousand other little boys; but then you noticed that by his side hung |
the scabbard of a sword, and as the boy grew bigger the scabbard grew |
bigger too. The sword which belonged to the scabbard was found by the |
little boy sticking out of the ground in the garden, and every day he |
pulled it up to see if it would go into the scabbard. But though it |
was plainly becoming longer and longer, it was some time before the two |
would fit. |
However, there came a day at last when it slipped in quite easily. The |
child was so delighted that he could hardly believe his eyes, so he |
tried it seven times, and each time it slipped in more easily than |
before. But pleased though the boy was, he determined not to tell anyone |
about it, particularly not his mother, who never could keep anything |
from her neighbours. |
Still, in spite of his resolutions, he could not hide altogether that |
something had happened, and when he went in to breakfast his mother |
asked him what was the matter. |
'Oh, mother, I had such a nice dream last night,' said he; 'but I can't |
tell it to anybody.' |
'You can tell it to me,' she answered. 'It must have been a nice dream, |
or you wouldn't look so happy.' |
'No, mother; I can't tell it to anybody,' returned the boy, 'till it |
comes true.' |
'I want to know what it was, and know it I will,' cried she, 'and I will |
beat you till you tell me.' |