บทที่ บทที่ 6 · The Good Bargain

. The Good Bargain

There was once a peasant who had driven his cow to the fair, and sold

her for seven thalers. On the way home he had to pass a pond, and

already from afar he heard the frogs crying, “Aik, aik, aik, aik.”

“Well,” said he to himself, “they are talking without rhyme or reason,

it is seven that I have received, not eight.” When he got to the water,

he cried to them, “Stupid animals that you are! Don’t you know better

than that? It is seven thalers and not eight.” The frogs, however,

stood to their, “aik aik, aik, aik.” “Come, then, if you won’t believe

it, I can count it out to you.” And he took his money out of his pocket

and counted out the seven thalers, always reckoning four and twenty

groschen to a thaler. The frogs, however, paid no attention to his

reckoning, but still cried, “aik, aik, aik, aik.” “What,” cried the

peasant, quite angry, “since you are determined to know better than I,

count it yourselves,” and threw all the money into the water to them.

He stood still and wanted to wait until they were done and had brought

him his own again, but the frogs maintained their opinion and cried

continually, “aik, aik, aik, aik,” and besides that, did not throw the

money out again. He still waited a long while until evening came on and

he was forced to go home. Then he abused the frogs and cried, “You

water-splashers, you thick-heads, you goggle-eyes, you have great

mouths and can screech till you hurt one’s ears, but you cannot count

seven thalers! Do you think I’m going to stand here till you get done?”

And with that he went away, but the frogs still cried, “aik, aik, aik,

aik,” after him till he went home quite angry.

After a while he bought another cow, which he killed, and he made the

calculation that if he sold the meat well he might gain as much as the

two cows were worth, and have the skin into the bargain. When therefore

he got to the town with the meat, a great troop of dogs were gathered

together in front of the gate, with a large greyhound at the head of

them, which jumped at the meat, snuffed at it, and barked, “Wow, wow,

wow.” As there was no stopping him, the peasant said to him, “Yes, yes,

I know quite well that thou art saying, ‘wow, wow, wow,’ because thou

wantest some of the meat; but I should fare badly if I were to give it

to thee.” The dog, however, answered nothing but “wow, wow.” “Wilt thou

promise not to devour it all then, and wilt thou go bail for thy

companions?” “Wow, wow, wow,” said the dog. “Well, if thou insistest on

it, I will leave it for thee; I know thee well, and know who is thy

master; but this I tell thee, I must have my money in three days or

else it will go ill with thee; thou must just bring it out to me.”

Thereupon he unloaded the meat and turned back again, the dogs fell

upon it and loudly barked, “wow, wow.”

The countryman, who heard them from afar, said to himself, “Hark, now

they all want some, but the big one is responsible to me for it.”

When three days had passed, the countryman thought, “To-night my money

will be in my pocket,” and was quite delighted. But no one would come

and pay it. “There is no trusting any one now,” said he; and at last he

lost patience, and went into the town to the butcher and demanded his

money. The butcher thought it was a joke, but the peasant said,

“Jesting apart, I will have my money! Did not the great dog bring you

the whole of the slaughtered cow three days ago?” Then the butcher grew

angry, snatched a broomstick and drove him out. “Wait a while,” said

the peasant, “there is still some justice in the world!” and went to

the royal palace and begged for an audience. He was led before the

King, who sat there with his daughter, and asked him what injury he had

suffered. “Alas!” said he, “the frogs and the dogs have taken from me

what is mine, and the butcher has paid me for it with the stick,” and

he related at full length all that had happened. Thereupon the King’s

daughter began to laugh heartily, and the King said to him, “I cannot

give you justice in this, but you shall have my daughter to wife for

it,—in her whole life she has never yet laughed as she has just done at

thee, and I have promised her to him who could make her laugh. Thou

mayst thank God for thy good fortune!”

“Oh,” answered the peasant, “I will not have her, I have a wife

already, and she is one too many for me; when I go home, it is just as

bad as if I had a wife standing in every corner.” Then the King grew

angry, and said, “Thou art a boor.” “Ah, Lord King,” replied the

peasant, “what can you expect from an ox, but beef?” “Stop,” answered

the King, “thou shalt have another reward. Be off now, but come back in

three days, and then thou shalt have five hundred counted out in full.”

When the peasant went out by the gate, the sentry said, “Thou hast made

the King’s daughter laugh, so thou wilt certainly receive something

good.” “Yes, that is what I think,” answered the peasant; “five hundred

are to be counted out to me.” “Hark thee,” said the soldier, “give me

some of it. What canst thou do with all that money?” “As it is thou,”

said the peasant, “thou shalt have two hundred; present thyself in

three days’ time before the King, and let it be paid to thee.” A Jew,

who was standing by and had heard the conversation, ran after the

peasant, held him by the coat, and said, “Oh, wonder! what a luck-child

thou art! I will change it for thee, I will change it for thee into

small coins, what dost thou want with the great thalers?” “Jew,” said

the countryman, “three hundred canst thou still have; give it to me at

once in coin, in three days from this, thou wilt be paid for it by the

King.” The Jew was delighted with the profit, and brought the sum in

bad groschen, three of which were worth two good ones. After three days

had passed, according to the King’s command, the peasant went before

the King. “Pull his coat off,” said the latter, “and he shall have his

five hundred.” “Ah!” said the peasant, “they no longer belong to me; I

presented two hundred of them to the sentinel, and three hundred the

Jew has changed for me, so by right nothing at all belongs to me.” In

the meantime the soldier and the Jew entered and claimed what they had

gained from the peasant, and they received the blows strictly counted

out. The soldier bore it patiently and knew already how it tasted, but

the Jew said sorrowfully, “Alas, alas, are these the heavy thalers?”

The King could not help laughing at the peasant, and as all his anger

was gone, he said, “As thou hast already lost thy reward before it fell

to thy lot, I will give thee something in the place of it. Go into my

treasure chamber and get some money for thyself, as much as thou wilt.”

The peasant did not need to be told twice, and stuffed into his big

pockets whatsoever would go in. Afterwards he went to an inn and

counted out his money. The Jew had crept after him and heard how he

muttered to himself, “That rogue of a King has cheated me after all,

why could he not have given me the money himself, and then I should

have known what I had? How can I tell now if what I have had the luck

to put in my pockets is right or not?” “Good heavens!” said the Jew to

himself, “that man is speaking disrespectfully of our lord the King, I

will run and inform, and then I shall get a reward, and he will be

punished as well.”

When the King heard of the peasant’s words he fell into a passion, and

commanded the Jew to go and bring the offender to him. The Jew ran to

the peasant, “You are to go at once to the lord King in the very

clothes you have on.” “I know what’s right better than that,” answered

the peasant, “I shall have a new coat made first. Dost thou think that

a man with so much money in his pocket is to go there in his ragged old

coat?” The Jew, as he saw that the peasant would not stir without

another coat, and as he feared that if the King’s anger cooled, he

himself would lose his reward, and the peasant his punishment, said, “I

will out of pure friendship lend thee a coat for the short time. What

will people not do for love!” The peasant was contented with this, put

the Jew’s coat on, and went off with him.

The King reproached the countryman because of the evil speaking of

which the Jew had informed him. “Ah,” said the peasant, “what a Jew

says is always false—no true word ever comes out of his mouth! That

rascal there is capable of maintaining that I have his coat on.”

“What is that?” shrieked the Jew. “Is the coat not mine? Have I not

lent it to thee out of pure friendship, in order that thou might appear

before the lord King?” When the King heard that, he said, “The Jew has

assuredly deceived one or the other of us, either myself or the

peasant,” and again he ordered something to be counted out to him in

hard thalers. The peasant, however, went home in the good coat, with

the good money in his pocket, and said to himself, “This time I have

hit it!”