The apples were beginning to roast. "What isthat?" asked one.
  "Why, do you know"- said our peasant. And then he told them thewhole story of the horse, which he had exchanged for a cow, and allthe rest of it, down to the apples.
  "Well, your old woman will give it you well when you get home,"said one of the Englishmen. "Won't there be a noise?"
  "What! Give me what?" said the peasant. "Why, she will kiss me,and say, 'what the old man does is always right.'"
  "Let us lay a wager on it," said the Englishmen. "We'll wageryou a ton of coined gold, a hundred pounds to the hundred-weight."
  "No; a bushel will be enough," replied the peasant. "I can onlyset a bushel of apples against it, and I'll throw myself and my oldwoman into the bargain; that will pile up the measure, I fancy."
  "Done! taken!" and so the bet was made.
  Then the landlord's coach came to the door, and the two Englishmenand the peasant got in, and away they drove, and soon arrived andstopped at the peasant's hut. "Good evening, old woman." "Goodevening, old man." "I've made the exchange."
  "Ah, well, you understand what you're about," said the woman. Thenshe embraced him, and paid no attention to the strangers, nor didshe notice the sack.
  "I got a cow in exchange for the horse."
  "Thank Heaven," said she. "Now we shall have plenty of milk, andbutter, and cheese on the table. That was a capital exchange."
  "Yes, but I changed the cow for a sheep."
  "Ah, better still!" cried the wife. "You always think ofeverything; we have just enough pasture for a sheep. Ewe's milk andcheese, woollen jackets and stockings! The cow could not give allthese, and her hair only falls off. How you think of everything!"
  "But I changed away the sheep for a goose."
  "Then we shall have roast goose to eat this year. You dear oldman, you are always thinking of something to please me. This isdelightful. We can let the goose walk about with a string tied toher leg, so she will be fatter still before we roast her."
  "But I gave away the goose for a fowl."
  "A fowl! Well, that was a good exchange," replied the woman."The fowl will lay eggs and hatch them, and we shall have chickens; weshall soon have a poultry-yard. Oh, this is just what I was wishingfor."
  "Yes, but I exchanged the fowl for a sack of shrivelled apples."
  "What! I really must give you a kiss for that!" exclaimed thewife. "My dear, good husband, now I'll tell you something. Do youknow, almost as soon as you left me this morning, I began to thinkof what I could give you nice for supper this evening, and then Ithought of fried eggs and bacon, with sweet herbs; I had eggs andbacon, but I wanted the herbs; so I went over to the schoolmaster's: Iknew they had plenty of herbs, but the schoolmistress is very mean,although she can smile so sweetly. I begged her to lend me a handfulof herbs. 'Lend!' she exclaimed, 'I have nothing to lend; nothing atall grows in our garden, not even a shrivelled apple; I could not evenlend you a shrivelled apple, my dear woman. But now I can lend herten, or a whole sackful, which I'm very glad of; it makes me laughto think about it;" and then she gave him a hearty kiss.
  "Well, I like all this," said both the Englishmen; "always goingdown the hill, and yet always merry; it's worth the money to seeit." So they paid a hundred-weight of gold to the peasant, who,whatever he did, was not scolded but kissed.
  Yes, it always pays best when the wife sees and maintains that herhusband knows best, and whatever he does is right.
  That is a story which I heard when I was a child; and now you haveheard it too, and know that "What the old man does is always right."
  THE END.
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