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!”
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