“All very true, I dare say,” said his mother; “but I shan’t believe any such stuff until I see the ducats made.” “Ram, ram! Make money!” said the lad; but the ram made no money. So the lad went back again to the North Wind, and blew him up, and said the ram was worth nothing, and he must have his rights for the meal. “Well,” said the North Wind, “I’ve nothing else to give you but that old stick in the corner yonder; but it’s a stick of that kind that if you say— ‘Stick, stick! lay on!’ it lays on till you say, ‘Stick, stick! now stop!’ So, as the way was long the lad turned in this night, too, to the landlord; but as he could pretty well guess how things stood as to the cloth and the ram, he lay down at once on the bench and began to snore, as if he were asleep. Now the landlord, who easily saw that the stick must be worth something, hunted up one which was like it, and when he heard the lad snore, was going to change the two, but just as the landlord was about to take it, the lad bawled out— “Stick, stick! lay on!” So the stick began to beat the landlord till he jumped over chairs, and tables, and benches, and yelled and roared,— “Oh my! oh my! bid the stick be still, else it will beat me to death, and you shall have back your cloth and your ram, When the lad thought the landlord had got enough, he said— “Stick, stick! now stop!” Then he took the cloth and put it into his pocket, and went home with his stick in his hand, leading the ram by a cord round its horns; and so he got his rights for the meal he had lost. THE HUSBAND WHO WAS TO MIND THE HOUSE By Sir George Webbe Dasent Once upon a time there was a man, so surly and cross, he never thought his wife did anything right in the house. So one evening in haymaking time, he came home, scolding and swearing, and showing his teeth and making a dust. “Dear love, don’t be so angry; there’s a good man,” said his goody; “to-morrow let’s change our work. I’ll go out with the mowers and mow, and you shall mind the house at home.” Yes, the husband thought that would do very well. He was quite willing, he said. So early next morning his goody took a scythe over her neck, and went out into the hayfield with the mowers and began to mow; but the man was to mind the house, and do the work at home.