mself that he could do nothing with one shoe if he had not the fellow
to it, so he journeyed onwards and let it lie where it was. Then the
youth picked up the shoe and hurried off away through the wood as fast
as he was able, to get in front of the man, and then put the shoe in the
road before him again.
When the man came with the ox and saw the shoe, he was quite vexed at
having been so stupid as to leave the fellow to it lying where it was,
instead of bringing it on with him.
'I will just run back again and fetch it now,' he said to himself, 'and
then I shall take back a pair of good shoes to the old woman, and she
may perhaps throw a kind word to me for once.'
So he went and searched and searched for the other shoe for a long, long
time, but no shoe was to be found, and at last he was forced to go back
with the one which he had.
In the meantime the youth had taken the ox and gone off with it. When
the man got there and found that his ox was gone, he began to weep and
wail, for he was afraid that when his old woman got to know she would be
the death of him. But all at once it came into his head to go home and
get the other ox, and drive it to the town, and take good care that his
old wife knew nothing about it. So he did this; he went home and took
the ox without his wife's knowing about it, and went on his way to the
town with it. But the robbers they knew it well, because they got out
their magic. So they told the youth that if he could take this ox also
without the man knowing anything about it, and without doing him any
hurt, he should then be on an equality with them.
'Well, that will not be a very hard thing to do,' thought the youth.
This time he took with him a rope and put it under his arms and tied
himself up to a tree, which hung over the road that the man would have
to take. So the man came with his ox, and when he saw the body hanging
there he felt a little queer.
'What a hard lot yours must have been to make you hang yourself!' said
he. 'Ah, well! you may hang there for me; I can't breathe life into you
again.'
So on he went with his ox. Then the youth sprang down from the tree, ran
by a short cut and got before him, and once more hung himself up on a
tree in the road before the man.
'How I should like to know if you really were so sick at heart that you
hanged yourself there, or if it is only a hobgoblin that's before me!'
said the man. 'Ah, well! you may hang there for me, whether yo
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