es.

"Well, your good wife will give it to you when you get home," said one
of them.

"Not at all," said the peasant; "she will give me a kiss, instead of
scolding me, and she will say: 'What father does is always right.'"

"Shall we wager," said the stranger, "a barrel of gold coins--a
hundred pounds to a hundredweight?"

"It is quite enough to make it a bushelful," said the peasant; "I can
only set the bushel of apples against it; but I will throw myself and
the wife into the bargain, and that, I should say, is good measure!"

"Done!" he said; and so the wager was made.

The innkeeper's carriage came up, and the stranger got in, the peasant
got in, and the apples got in, and away they all went to the peasant's
house.

"Good evening, mother!"

"Good evening, father!"

"I have made the exchange."

"Well, you understand what you are about," said the woman, and she was
so glad to see him, she forgot all about the sack and the stranger.

"I have exchanged the horse for a cow."

"Oh, how nice to get milk!" said the wife; "now we can have butter and
cheese on the table; that was indeed a capital exchange!"

"Yes, but I exchanged the cow for a sheep."

"Well, that is perhaps better," said the wife; "you always think of
everything. We have just enough pasture for a sheep; ewe's milk, and
cheese, and woolen socks, and a woolen jacket--the cow cannot give
these. How you do think of everything, to be sure!"

"But the sheep I exchanged for a goose."

"Are we really going to have roast goose for Christmas this year,
father dear? You are always thinking of something to please me. This
is a capital idea of yours; the goose can be tied to a string, and we
will fatten her for Christmas!"

"But I exchanged the goose for a hen," said the old man.

"A hen! oh, that was a good bargain!" said the woman. "A hen lays
eggs, and hatches them, and so we can get chickens--a whole
poultry-yard--and that's the very thing I have always wished for."

"Yes; but the hen I exchanged for a sack of apples!"

"Now, I must really kiss you!" said the woman.

"Thank you, thank you, my dear man! Now I'll tell you something; when
you were gone, I thought I would make a nice meal for you--pancakes
with onions. The eggs I had, but I had no onions, so I went over to
the school-master's--they have onions, I know, but the wife is mean,
poor thing. I asked her to lend me some. 'Lend!' she said; 'there is
nothing that grows in our garden tha