So they went on for a bit, and then, one day, she thought to herself,
"'T is time to clean up my house." When she was taking down her big bed
she found a bag of groats on the tester. So when Jan came home, she up
and said to him, "Jan, what is that bag of groats on the tester for?"
"That is for Hereafterthis, my dear."
Now, there was a robber outside the window, and he heard what Jan said.
Next day, he waited till Jan had gone to market, and then he came and
knocked at the door. "What do you please to want?" said Mally.
"I am Hereafterthis," said the robber, "I have come for the bag of
groats."
Now the robber was dressed like a fine gentleman, so she thought to
herself it was very kind of so fine a man to come for the bag of groats,
so she ran upstairs and fetched the bag of groats, and gave it to the
robber and he went away with it.
When Jan came home, she said to him, "Jan, Hereafterthis has been for
the bag of groats."
"What do you mean, wife?" said Jan.
So she up and told him, and he said, "Then I'm a ruined man, for that
money was to pay our rent with. The only thing we can do is to roam the
world over till we find the bag of groats." Then Jan took the house-door
off its hinges, "That's all we shall have to lie on," he said. So Jan
put the door on his back, and they both set out to look for
Hereafterthis. Many a long day they went, and in the night Jan used to
put the door on the branches of a tree, and they would sleep on it. One
night they came to a big hill, and there was a high tree at the foot. So
Jan put the door up in it, and they got up in the tree and went to
sleep. By-and-by Jan's wife heard a noise, and she looked to see what it
was. It was an opening of a door in the side of the hill. Out came two
gentlemen with a long table, and behind them fine ladies and gentlemen,
each carrying a bag, and one of them was Hereafterthis with the bag of
groats. They sat round the table, and began to drink and talk and count
up all the money in the bags. So then Jan's wife woke him up, and asked
what they should do.
"Now's our time," said Jan, and he pushed the door off the branches,
and it fell right in the very middle of the table, and frightened the
robbers so that they all ran away. Then Jan and his wife got down from
the tree, took as many money-bags as they could carry on the door, and
went straight home. And Jan bought his wife more cows, and more pigs,
and they lived happy ever after.
The Golden Ball
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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