ched the clerk when they also stuck
fast as the others, and the simpleton with his golden goose travelled
with the seven.

After awhile they came to a city in which reigned a king who had a
daughter of such a melancholy disposition that no one could make her
laugh; therefore he issued a decree that whoever would make the princess
laugh should have her in marriage.

Now, when the simple youth heard this, he ran before her, and the whole
seven trotted after him. The sight was so ridiculous that the moment the
princess saw it she burst into a violent fit of laughter and they
thought she would never leave off.

After this, the youth went to the king, and demanded his daughter in
marriage, according to the king's decree; but his majesty did not quite
like to have the young man for a son-in-law, so he said that, before he
could consent to the marriage, the youth must bring him a man who could
drink all the wine in the king's cellar.

The simpleton went into the forest, for he thought, "If anyone can help
me, it is the little gray man." When he arrived at the spot where he had
cut down the tree, there stood a man with a very miserable face.

The youth asked him why he looked so sorrowful.

"Oh," he exclaimed, "I suffer such dreadful thirst that nothing seems
able to quench it; and cold water I cannot endure. I have emptied a cask
of wine already, but it was just like a drop of water on a hot stone."

"I can help you," cried the young man; "come with me, and you shall have
your fill, I promise you."

Upon this he led the man into the king's cellar, where he opened the
casks one after another, and drank and drank till his back ached; and
before the day closed he had quite emptied the king's cellar.

Again the young man asked for his bride, but the king was annoyed at the
thought of giving his daughter to such a common fellow, and to get rid
of him he made another condition. He said that no man should have his
daughter who could not find someone able to eat up a whole mountain of
bread.

Away went the simpleton to the forest as before, and there in the same
place sat a man binding himself round tightly with a belt, and making
the most horrible faces. As the youth approached, he cried, "I have
eaten a whole ovenful of rolls, but it has not satisfied me a bit; I am
as hungry as ever, and my stomach feels so empty that I am obliged to
bind it round tightly, or I should die of hunger."

The simpleton could hardly contain