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 the rest may as well follow.’ Then she strewed the meal all over the cellar. She was delighted with her handiwork when it was finished, and said: ‘How clean and fresh it looks.’

At dinner-time Fred came home. ‘Well, wife, what have you got for dinner?’ he said.


 * O Fred!’ she answered, ‘I was frying you a sausage, but while I went down to draw the beer, the dog got it; and while I ran after the dog, the beer ran out of the cask. Then when I was going to dry up the beer with the meal, I knocked the jug over. But never mind, the cellar is quite dry now.’

Fred said: ‘Kate, Kate, what have you been doing? First you let the sausage be carried off, then you let the beer run out of the cask, and, lastly, you waste our fine meal.’

‘Well, Fred, I did not know; you should have told me what to do.’

The man thought: ‘If my wife is like this, I must look after things myself.’

Now, he had saved a nice little sum of money, which he changed into gold, and said to Kate: ‘Do you see these yellow counters? I am going to put them in a pot, and bury them underneath the cow’s manger in the stable; don’t you meddle with them, or it will be the worse for you.’

And sne said: ‘Oh no, Fred, I won’t.’

Now, when Fred had gone out, several Pedlars came into the village with earthen pots and pans for sale. They asked the young wife if she had nothing to give in exchange for them.

‘Oh, good people,’ said Kate, ‘I have no money, and I can’t buy anything, but if some yellow counters would be any good to you, I might do some business.’

‘Yellow counters! Why not? You might as well show them to us,’ said the men.

‘You must go into the stable and dig under the cow’s manger, and you will find the yellow counters. I dare not go with you.’

So the rogues went to the stable and dug up the pot of gold.