and asked him as a debt for three pecks of every kind of corn. When he came back he told his aged guest:
"Here it all is, grandfather."
So they went outside to the fields, scattered it according to its nature on the peasant's lots; and lo and behold! they went and threw all the grains on the white snow—every single grain.
The old man said to the peasant: "Go home and wait until the summer; you will have bread enough."
So the poor man went to his hut and became the laughing-stock of the village for sowing his corn in the winter. "Look at him! What a fool he is! He has forgotten when he ought to sow: he didn't think of sowing in the autumn." He never minded, but waited for the spring, and the warm days came, and the snow melted, and the grain sprouts appeared.
"Come now," the poor man said, "I will go and see what my stretch of land looks like." So he went to his stretch of land and saw such splendid blades of corn, at which any soul might rejoice. And on all the acres of the others it was not half as fine. "Glory be to God!" the peasant cried; "I am now looking up!"
Soon the time of harvest came by, and all good folk began to gather their corn, and the old man also went and busied himself, and called his wife to help him. And he could not get through, but had to summon for the harvesting all the husbandmen, and to give half of his corn away; and all the peasants were astonished at the poor man, for he had not sown his land, but had scattered the seeds in the winter and his corn had been splendid. The poor peasant had put his affairs straight and had managed to live without any trouble; and whatever he required for his household, he went into the town, sold quarters and quarters of corn, and bought whatever he required, and repaid the rich peasant his debt in full.
