hat her good man
could not touch or change or move anything about the house without her
coming forward to thank him for having divined and forestalled her
wishes.

Besides, it was easy for them to get along, since the farm belonged to
them, and they had a hundred solid crowns in a drawer of their closet
and two excellent cows in their stable. They lacked nothing, and could
quietly pass their old age without fear of poverty or toil, and without
having to look to the friendship or the commiseration of any of their
fellow-creatures.

One evening, while they were talking over their various little tasks and
projects, says the wife of Gudbrand to her husband,--

'Husband, I've got a new notion in my head: you must take one of our
cows to town and sell her. We'll keep the other, and she'll be quite
enough to furnish us with all the milk and butter we can use. Why
should we toil for other people? We've money lying in the drawer, and
have no children to look after. So, wouldn't it be better to spare these
arms of ours, now that they are growing old? You will always find
something to occupy your time about the house;--there'll be no lack of
furniture and things to mend, and I'll be more than ever beside you with
my distaff and my knitting-needles.'

Gudbrand bethought him that his wife was right, as usual, and so, as the
next morning was a beautiful one, he set off for the town, at an early
hour, with the cow he wanted to sell. But it was not market day, and he
found no purchaser to take the animal off his hands.

'Well! well!' said Gudbrand, 'at all events, I can take Sukey back to
the place I brought her from; I've got hay and litter in plenty, there,
for the poor brute, and it's no farther returning than it was coming
hither.' Whereupon, he very quietly started again on the road to his
home.

After walking on for a few hours, and just as he was beginning to feel a
little tired, he met a man leading a horse by the bridle toward the
town. The horse was in fine condition, and was all saddled and ready for
a rider. 'The way is long and night rapidly coming on,' thought
Gudbrand. 'I can hardly drag my cow along, and to-morrow I'll have to
take this same walk over again. Now, here's an animal that would suit me
a great deal better, and I'd go back home with him, as proud as a lord.
Who would be delighted to see her husband returning in triumph, like a
Roman general? Why, the wife of Gudbrand!'

Upon this happy thought, Gudb