im with great joy.

"Now, my dear son, what have you learned?" said he to him.

"I have learned to be a joiner, father," he answered.

"That is a good trade," returned the father; "but what have you brought
back with you from your travels?"

"The best thing I've got, father, is this little table," said he.

The tailor looked at it on all sides, and said,

"You have certainly produced no masterpiece. It is a rubbishing old
table."

"But it is a very wonderful one," answered the son. "When I set it down,
and tell it to be covered, at once the finest meats are standing on it,
and wine so good that it cheers the heart. Let us invite all the friends
and neighbours, that they may feast and enjoy themselves, for the table
will provide enough for all."

When the company was all assembled, he put his table in the middle of
the room, and said, "Table, be covered!"

But the table never stirred, and remained just as empty as any other
table that does not understand talking. When the poor joiner saw that
the table remained unfurnished, he felt ashamed to stand there like a
fool. The company laughed at him freely, and were obliged to return
unfilled and uncheered to their houses. The father gathered his pieces
together and returned to his tailoring, and the son went to work under
another master.

The second son had bound himself apprentice to a miller. And when his
time was up, his master said to him,

"As you have behaved yourself so well, I will give you an ass of a
remarkable kind: he will draw no cart, and carry no sack."

"What is the good of him then?" asked the young apprentice.

"He spits out gold," answered the miller. "If you put a cloth before him
and say, 'Bricklebrit,' out come gold pieces."

"That is a capital thing," said the apprentice, and, thanking his
master, he went out into the world. Whenever he wanted gold he had only
to say "Bricklebrit" to his ass, and there was a shower of gold pieces,
and so he had no cares as he travelled about. Wherever he came he lived
on the best, and the dearer the better, as his purse was always full.
And when he had been looking about him about the world a long time, he
thought he would go and find out his father, who would perhaps forget
his anger and receive him kindly because of his gold ass. And it
happened that he came to lodge in the same inn where his brother's table
had been exchanged. He was leading his ass in his hand, and the landlord
was for taking the as