Page 17 - The Golden Goose

of your wine; I am so hungry and thirsty." But
the prudent youth answered, "Give you my cake
and my wine? I haven't got any; be off with you."
And leaving the little man standing there, he
went off. Then he began to fell a tree, but he had
not been at it long before he made a wrong
stroke, and the hatchet hit him in the arm, so that
he was obliged to go home and get it bound up.
That was what came of the little grey man.
Afterwards the second son went into the wood,
and the mother gave to him, as to the eldest, a
pancake and a flask of wine. The little old grey
man met him also, and begged for a little bit of
cake and a drink of wine. But the second son
spoke out plainly, saying, "What I give you I lose
myself, so be off with you." And leaving the little
__

17