he miller called out to them to
make room, and brought in the ass, and spread his cloth before him.

"Now, pay attention," said he, and cried, "Bricklebrit!" but no gold
pieces came, and that showed that the animal was not more scientific
than any other ass.

So the poor miller made a long face when he saw that he had been taken
in, and begged pardon of the neighbours, who all went home as poor as
they had come. And there was nothing for it but that the old man must
take to his needle again, and that the young one should take service
with a miller.

The third brother had bound himself apprentice to a turner; and as
turning is a very ingenious handicraft, it took him a long time to learn
it. His brother told him in a letter how badly things had gone with
them, and how on the last night of their travels the landlord deprived
them of their treasures. When the young turner had learnt his trade, and
was ready to travel, his master, to reward him for his good conduct,
gave him a sack, and told him that there was a stick inside it.

"I can hang up the sack, and it may be very useful to me," said the
young man. "But what is the good of the stick?"

"I will tell you," answered the master. "If any one does you any harm,
and you say, 'Stick, out of the sack!' the stick will jump out upon
them, and will belabour them so soundly that they shall not be able to
move or to leave the place for a week, and it will not stop until you
say, 'Stick, into the sack!'"

The apprentice thanked him, and took up the sack and started on his
travels, and when any one attacked him he would say, "Stick, out of the
sack!" and directly out jumped the stick, and dealt a shower of blows on
the coat or jerkin, and the back beneath, which quickly ended the
affair. One evening the young turner reached the inn where his two
brothers had been taken in. He laid his knapsack on the table, and began
to describe all the wonderful things he had seen in the world.

"Yes," said he, "you may talk of your self-spreading table,
gold-supplying ass, and so forth; very good things, I do not deny, but
they are nothing in comparison with the treasure that I have acquired
and carry with me in that sack!"

Then the landlord opened his ears.

"What in the world can it be?" thought he. "Very likely the sack is full
of precious stones; and I have a perfect right to it, for all good
things come in threes."

When bedtime came the guest stretched himself on a bench, and