and a plate, and knife, and
fork, and dishes with roast and boiled, and a large glass of red wine
sparkling so as to cheer the heart. The young apprentice thought he was
set up for life, and he went merrily out into the world, and never cared
whether an inn were good or bad, or whether he could get anything to eat
there or not. When he was hungry, it did not matter where he was,
whether in the fields, in the woods, or in a meadow, he set down his
table and said, "Be covered!" and there he was provided with everything
that heart could wish. At last it occurred to him that he would go back
to his father, whose wrath might by this time have subsided, and perhaps
because of the wonderful table he might receive him again gladly. It
happened that one evening during his journey home he came to an inn that
was quite full of guests, who bade him welcome, and asked him to sit
down with them and eat, as otherwise he would have found some difficulty
in getting anything.

"No," answered the young joiner, "I could not think of depriving you;
you had much better be my guests."

Then they laughed, and thought he must be joking. But he brought his
little wooden table, and put it in the middle of the room, and said,
"Table, be covered!" Immediately it was set out with food much better
than the landlord had been able to provide, and the good smell of it
greeted the noses of the guests very agreeably. "Fall to, good friends,"
said the joiner; and the guests, when they saw how it was, needed no
second asking, but taking up knife and fork fell to valiantly. And what
seemed most wonderful was that when a dish was empty immediately a full
one stood in its place. All the while the landlord stood in a corner,
and watched all that went on. He could not tell what to say about it;
but he thought "such cooking as that would make my inn prosper." The
joiner and his fellowship kept it up very merrily until late at night.
At last they went to sleep, and the young joiner, going to bed, left his
wishing-table standing against the wall. The landlord, however, could
not sleep for thinking of the table, and he remembered that there was in
his lumber room an old table very like it, so he fetched it, and taking
away the joiner's table, he left the other in its place. The next
morning the joiner paid his reckoning, took up the table, not dreaming
that he was carrying off the wrong one, and went on his way. About noon
he reached home, and his father received h