take my advice, and make an exchange with me. I live near here; let me have your cow, which you will never succeed in leading back to your house, and take this sack; it is not very heavy, and everything it contains is worth having."
The bargain concluded, the stranger led away the cow. The peasant, hoisting the sack, which he found terribly heavy, on his back, set off on his way home.
In great trepidation at the reproaches and jeers of his wife, he entered the cottage and burst into a long description of the dangers he had incurred, and how, like the clever man he was, he had exchanged a dying cow for a sack full of treasures. On hearing this fine story, the woman began to show her displeasure; whereupon her husband implored her to restrain her bad temper, and make no delay in putting her largest saucepan on the fire. "You will thank me," he said, "when you see what I have brought you."
Upon which he opened the sack, and behold, out of its depths came a little man all clothed in grey, like a mouse!
"Good-day, good people," he said with all the dignity of a prince. "I hope that, instead of boiling me, you will supply me with something to eat. This little expedition has given me a good appetite."
The peasant fell upon his stool as though he had been thunderstruck.
"There," said his wife, "I was sure of it. Here is a new folly. But what can you expect from a husband? He is certain to do something idiotic! We have lost the cow by which we lived, and now that we have nothing left, you bring us another mouth to feed! I wish you had remained under the snow, sir, you, and your sack, and your treasure!"
The good lady would have gone on talking if the little grey man had not pointed out to her that big words do not fill the pot, and that the wisest thing to do was to sally forth in search of game.
Saying this, he went out in spite of the wind and the snow, and after some time returned with a great sheep.
"There," he said, "kill this animal for me, and do not let us die of hunger."
The old man and his wife glanced at each other across the little man and his prey. This windfall looked remarkably like a theft. But hunger silences all qualms of conscience. Lawful or not, the sheep was devoured with the greatest relish. From that day, plenty reigned in the home of the peasant. Sheep succeeded sheep, and the good man, more credulous than ever, began to think that, after all, he had gained by his bargain, since instead of the hundred cows he expected, Heaven had sent him such an expert purveyor as the little grey man.
"The sheep diminished visibly in the royal flock."
One story is good till another is heard. Though the sheep multiplied in the old man's cottage, they diminished visibly in the Royal flock, which grazed in the vicinity. The chief shepherd, becoming uneasy, informed the King that, for some time, in spite of the increasing vigilance of the watch, the finest animals of the flock disappeared one after the other. Without doubt, some clever thief must have taken up his abode in the neighbourhood. Before long it became known
