hought it a fine thing, but most of all the landlady. So,
when all were fast asleep, at dead of night, she took the lad's cloth,
and put another in its stead, just like the one he had got from the
North Wind, but which couldn't so much as serve up a bit of dry bread.

So, when the lad woke, he took his cloth and went off with it, and that
day he got home to his mother.

"Now," said he, "I've been to the North Wind's house, and a good fellow
he is, for he gave me this cloth, and when I only say to it, 'Cloth,
spread yourself, and serve up all kinds of good dishes,' I get any sort
of food I please."

"All very true, I dare say," said his mother; "but seeing is believing,
and I shan't believe it till I see it."

So the lad made haste, drew out a table, laid the cloth on it, and said:

"Cloth, spread yourself, and serve all up kinds of good dishes."

But never a bit of dry bread did the cloth serve up.

"Well," said the lad, "there's no help for it but to go to the North
Wind again;" and away he went.

So he came to where the North Wind lived late in the afternoon.

"Good evening!" said the lad.

"Good evening," said the North Wind.

"I want my rights for that meal of ours which you took," said the lad;
"for as for that cloth I got, it isn't worth a penny."

"I've got no meal," said the North Wind; "but yonder you have a ram
which coins nothing but golden ducats as soon as you say to it:

"'Ram, ram! make money!'"

So the lad thought this a fine thing but as it was too far to get home
that day, he turned in for the night to the same inn where he had slept
before.

Before he called for anything, he tried the truth of what the North Wind
had said of the ram, and found it all right; but when the landlord saw
that, he thought it was a famous ram, and, when the lad had fallen
asleep, he took another which couldn't coin gold ducats, and changed the
two.

Next morning off went the lad; and when he got home to his mother he
said:

"After all, the North Wind is a jolly fellow; for now he has given me a
ram which can coin golden ducats if I only say, 'Ram, ram! make
money!'"

"All very true, I dare say," said his mother; "but I shan't believe any
such stuff until I see the ducats made."

"Ram, ram! make money!" said the lad; but if the ram made anything it
wasn't money.

So the lad went back again to the North Wind and blew him up, and said
the ram was worth nothing, and he must have his rights for the meal.