'Neighbor, you've made a pretty mess of it!' said Peter the Graybeard; 'you'll have a nice time of it when you get home. Heaven protect you from your dame! I wouldn't be in your shoes for ten crowns.' 'Good!' rejoined Gudbrand of the Hill; 'things might have turned out still worse for me; but, now, I'm quiet in my mind about it, for my wife is so clever that, right or wrong, no matter what I've done, well or ill, she'll not say one word about it.' 'I hear and admire your statement, neighbor,' retorted Peter, 'but, with all respect for you, I do not believe a word of it.' 'Will you lay a wager on it?' said Gudbrand. 'I have a hundred crowns in my drawer at home, and I'll bet twenty of them against as many from you.' 'Done, on the spot!' replied Peter. So, joining hands on it, the two friends entered Gudbrand's house. Peter stood back at the door to hear what the husband and wife would have to say. 'Good evening, wife!' said Gudbrand. 'Good evening, husband,' said the good woman; 'you've come back, then, God be praised! How did you fare all day?' 'Neither well nor ill,' replied Gudbrand. When I got to the town, I could find no one there to buy our cow, and so I traded her off for a horse.' 'For a horse!' said the wife. 'An excellent idea, and I thank you with all my heart. We can go to church, then, in a wagon, like plenty of other folks who look down upon us, but are no better than we. If we choose to keep a horse and can feed him, we have a right to do it, I suppose, for we ask no odds of anybody. Where is the horse? We must put him into the stable.' 'I did not bring him all the way home,' answered Gudbrand, 'for, on the road, I changed my mind; I exchanged the horse for a hog.' 'Come, now,' said the wife, 'that's just what I'd have done, in your place! Thanks, a hundred times over! Now, when my neighbors come to see me, I'll have, like everybody else, a bite of ham to offer them. What need had we of a horse? The folks around us would have said, "See the saucy things! they think it beneath them to walk to church." Let us put the hog in a pen!' 'I didn't bring him with me,' said Gudbrand, 'for on the way I exchanged him for a she-goat.' 'Bravo!' said the good wife. 'What a sensible man you are! When I come to think of it, what could I have done with a hog? The neighbors would have pointed us out and have said, "Look at those people--all they make they eat! But, with a she-goat, I shall have milk and cheese, not to speak of the little kids. Come, let us put her into the stable." 'I didn't bring the she-goat with me, either,' said Gudbrand; 'I traded her again, for a ewe.' 'There! That's just like you,' exclaimed the wife, with evident satisfaction. 'It was for my sake that you did that. Am I young enough to scamper, over hill and dale, after a she-goat? No, indeed. But, a ewe will yield me her wool as well as her milk; so let us get her housed at once.'