to hear the ox
talk. I stood with my mouth wide open, staring at him."

"Never mind, I'll get even with him."

The step-mother did not like the ox, and urged her husband to have him
slaughtered, neither more nor less. All night long she teased him
about it. The poor old man told her that the animal was not his, but
his son's, that he was a fine beast and might yet be very useful to
them. But she would not listen, and never stopped talking until he had
promised to kill the ox. Luckily the youth was awake and heard it all.
As soon as morning dawned he went to Tellerchen to curry and clean the
animal as he always did, but began to weep, and told the ox the fate
in store for him. Tellerchen told him he must stand outside the house
on the bench by the door, and when the people were chasing him, to
catch him and take him to the shambles, he must jump on his back as he
passed by. This was done, and after the ox had escaped he took his
master to a forest far more beautiful than any the boy had ever seen.
There they built huts, and lived as if they were in clover, for the
grass in the surrounding meadows was so tall that a man might have
lost himself in it, and was always so green and blooming that it made
excellent pasturage.

One day, when the youth was sitting comfortably before his hut,
playing on the flute, while the ox grazed at some distance, up came an
enormous bull, so fat that his hide seemed ready to burst.

"Why did you come here, youngster, with your Tellerchen, to drink my
water and feed on my grass?" he asked.

"I didn't know that this was your property," answered the youth,
"Tellerchen brought me here."

"Then tell him he must come to the Gold Bridge to-morrow and fight
with me." After saying this, he went away.

When the ox came home at night he found the youth more sorrowful than
ever before. "What ails you, master, that you stand there as if you
were stupefied?" asked the ox.

"What ails me?" replied the youth. "Why, I'm in a fine fix!" And he
repeated all that the bull had said.

"Never mind, master, don't worry about it, leave that to me."

Early the next morning the ox left the lad in the hut and set off to
the Gold Bridge to fight with the bull; he fought till he had pushed
him under the bridge, and then came back home safe and sound.

Two days after another bull came, somewhat smaller than the first one.
After saying the same things the other had said, he summoned
Tellerchen to fight at the