k to the
innkeeper to complain, and the landlord would have thrashed him if he
had not run away, and he ran until he reached his uncle's. His uncle,
when he saw him in such a plight, said: "Oh! what is the matter?"
"Uncle!" said the boy, "the same innkeeper has changed the tablecloth,
too, for me." The uncle was on the point of giving the dunce a good
thrashing; but afterward, seeing that it was a child, he calmed his
anger, and said: "I understand; but I will give you a remedy by which
you can get back everything from that thief of a landlord. Here it is!
It is a stick. Hide it under your bolster; and if any one comes to rob
you of it, say to it, in a low voice: '_Beat, beat!_' and it will
continue to do so until you say to it, '_Stop_.'"

Imagine how joyfully the boy took the stick! It was a handsome polished
stick, with a gold handle, and delighted one only to see it. So the boy
thanked his uncle for his kindness, and after he had journeyed a while,
he came to the same inn. He said: "Landlord, I wish to lodge here
to-night." The landlord at once drew his conclusions about the stick,
which the boy carried openly in his hands, and at night when the lad
appeared to be sound asleep, but really was on the watch, the landlord
felt softly under the bolster and drew out the stick. The boy, although
it was dark, perceived the theft and said in a low voice: "_Beat, beat,
beat!_" Suddenly blows were rained down without mercy; everything broken
to pieces, the chest of drawers, the looking-glass, all the chairs, the
glass in the windows; and the landlord, and those that came at the
noise, beaten nearly to death. The landlord screamed to split his
throat: "Save me, boy, I am dead!" The boy answered: "What! I will not
deliver you, if you do not give me back my property,--the ass that lays
gold, and the tablecloth that prepares dinner." And if the landlord did
not want to die of the blows, he had to consent to the boy's wishes.

When he had his things back, the boy went home to his mother and told
her what had happened to him, and then said: "Now, we do not need
anything more. I have an ass that lays money, a tablecloth that prepares
food at my will, and a stick to defend me from whoever annoys me." So
that woman and her son, who, from want had become rich enough to cause
every one envy, wished from pride to invite their relatives to a
banquet, to make them acquainted with their wealth. On the appointed day
the relatives came to th