children hastened away, but the husband
came to the door and said, "Open the door!"--"Open the door thyself,"
replied the wife.--Again the husband bade her open the door, but she
paid no heed to him. The man was astonished. This was carrying a joke
too far, so he cried to his henchmen, "Henchmen, henchmen! out of the
drum, and teach my wife to respect her husband!" Then the henchmen
leaped out of the drum, laid the good wife by the heels, and began to
give her a sound drubbing. "Oh, my dear, darling husband!" shrieked
the wife, "never to the end of my days will I be sulky with thee
again. I'll do whatever thou tellest me, only leave off beating
me."--"Then I have taught thee sense, eh?" said the man.--"Oh, yes,
yes, good husband!" cried she. Then the man said: "Henchmen, henchmen!
into the drum!" and the henchmen leaped into it again, leaving the
poor wife more dead than alive.
Then the husband said to her, "Wife, spread a cloth upon the floor."
The wife scudded about as nimbly as a fly, and spread a cloth out on
the floor without a word. Then the husband said, "Little ram, little
ram, scatter money!" And the little ram scattered money till there
were piles and piles of it. "Pick it up, my children," said the man,
"and thou too, wife, take what thou wilt!"--And they didn't wait to be
asked twice. Then the man hung up his sack on a peg and said, "Sack,
sack, meat and drink!" Then he caught hold of it and shook it, and
immediately the table was as full as it could hold with all manner of
victuals and drink. "Sit down, my children, and thou too, dear wife,
and eat thy fill. Thank God, we shall now have no lack of food, and
shall not have to work for it either."
So the man and his wife were very happy together, and were never tired
of thanking the Wind. They had not had the sack and the ram very long
when they grew very rich, and then the husband said to the wife, "I
tell thee what, wife!"--"What?" said she.--"Let us invite my brother
to come and see us."--"Very good," she replied; "invite him, but dost
thou think he'll come?"--"Why shouldn't he?" asked her husband. "Now,
thank God, we have everything we want. He wouldn't come to us when we
were poor and he was rich, because then he was ashamed to say that I
was his brother, but now even he hasn't got so much as we have."
So they made ready, and the man went to invite his brother. The poor
man came to his rich brother and said, "Hail to thee, brother; God
help thee!"-
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