The innkeeper carried a big sack of something.
"What have you there?" said the peasant.
"Apples!" answered the man; "a whole sackful for the pigs."
"Oh, that is a rare lot; I should like mother to see them. Last year
we had only one single apple on the old tree by the peat-house; this
apple we kept on the top of the cupboard until it cracked. 'Well, it
is always property,' said mother; but here she could see any quantity
of property; yes, I should like to show them to her."
"Well, what will you give for them?" asked the man.
"What will I give? I'll give my hen in exchange," he said, and so he
gave his hen in exchange, got the apples, and went into the inn.
Many strangers were present in the room, and they soon heard the whole
story--how the horse was exchanged for the cow, and so on, down to the
apples.
"Well, your good wife will give it to you when you get home," said one
of them.
"Not at all," said the peasant; "she will give me a kiss, instead of
scolding me, and she will say: 'What father does is always right.'"
"Shall we wager," said the stranger, "a barrel of gold coins--a
hundred pounds to a hundredweight?"
"It is quite enough to make it a bushelful," said the peasant; "I can
only set the bushel of apples against it; but I will throw myself and
the wife into the bargain, and that, I should say, is good measure!"
"Done!" he said; and so the wager was made.
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