ents tucked safely away in his bag.

"Now, wife!" he cried. "Now, children! Now we are going to have a
feast!"

He spread out the tablecloth and said:

"Meat and drink for ten!"

Instantly such a feast appeared that for a moment the poor wife and the
hungry children couldn't believe their eyes. Then they set to, and, oh!
I can't begin to tell you all they ate!

When they could eat no more, the shoemaker said:

"That isn't all. I've got something else in my bag."

He took out the clubs and said:

"Clubs, tickle the children!"

Instantly the clubs hopped around among the children and tickled them
under the ribs until they were all roaring with laughter.

"And that isn't all!" the shoemaker said. "I've got something else in my
bag."

He pulled out the red rooster, put him on the table, and said:

"Crow, rooster, crow!"

The rooster crowed and a golden ducat dropped from his bill.

"Oh!" the children cried, and the youngest one begged: "Make him do it
again! Make him do it again!"

So again the shoemaker said: "Crow, rooster, crow!" and again a golden
ducat dropped from the rooster's bill.

The children were so amused that the shoemaker kept the rooster crowing
all night long until the room was overflowing with a great heap of
shining ducats.

The next day the shoemaker said to his wife:

"We must measure our money and see how much we have. Send one of the
children over to Godfather to borrow a bushel measure."

So the youngest child ran over to the rich man's house and said:

"Godfather, my father says will you please lend us a bushel measure to
measure our money."

"Measure your money!" the rich man growled. "Pooh, pooh, what nonsense!
Wife, where's that old worn-out measure that we're going to throw away?
It's the very thing to lend these beggars."

The woman who was just as disagreeable as the man handed the child an
old broken measure and said, severely:

"See you bring it back at once!"

In a short time the little girl returned the measure.

"Thanks, Godfather," she said. "We've got a hundred bushels."

"A hundred bushels!" the farmer repeated scornfully after the child was
gone. "A hundred bushels of what? Look inside the measure, wife, and see
if you find a trace of anything."

The woman peered inside the measure and found a golden ducat lodged in a
slit. She took it out and the mere sight of it made her face and her
husband's face turn sick and pale with envy.

"Do you suppose t