106 WHAT THE OLD MAN DOES 1S ALWAYS RIGHT.

to the fair. The cow was as beautiful a creature as any cow
can be.

“She gives good milk, I’m sure,” said the peasant. “ That
would be a very good exchange—the cow for the horse.”

“ Hallo, you there with the cow!” hesaid ; “I tell you what—
I fancy a horse costs more than a cow, but I don’t care for that ;
a cow would be more useful to me. If you like, we’ll exchange.”

“To be sure I will,” returned the man ; and they exchanged
accordingly.

So that was settled, and the peasant might have turned back,
for he had done the business he came to do; but has he had once
made up his mind to go to the fair, he determined to proceed,
merely to have a look at it; and so he went on to the town with
his cow.

Leading the animal, he strode sturdily on; and after a short
time, he overtook a man who was driving a sheep. It was a
good fat sheep, with a fine fleece on its back.

“T should like to have that fellow,” said our peasant to himself.
“ He would find plenty of grass by our palings, and in the winter
we could keep him in the room with us. Perhaps it would be more
practical to have a sheep instead of a cow. Shall we exchange ?”

The man with the sheep was quite ready, and the bargain was
struck. So our peasant went on in the high road with his sheep.

Soon he overtook another man, who came into the road from
a field, carrying a great goose under his arm.

“That ’s a heavy thing you have there. It has plenty of feathers
and plenty of fat, and would look well tied to a string, and paddling
in the water at our place. That would be something for my old
woman; she could make all kinds of profit out of it. How often
she has said, ‘If we only had a goose!’ Now, perhaps, she can
have one ; and, if possible, it shall be hers. Shall we exchange ;
I’ll give you my sheep for your goose, and thank you into the
bargain.” .

The other man had not the least objection; and accordingly
they exchanged, and our peasant became proprietor of the
goose.

By this time he was very near the town. The crowd on the
high road became greater and greater; there was quite a crush
of men and cattle. They walked in the road, and close by the
palings ; and at the barrier they even walked into the toll-man’s
potato-field, where his own fowl was strutting about with a string
to its legs, lest it should take fright at the crowd, and stray away,
and so be lost. This fowl had short tail-feathers. and winked
with both its eyes, and looked very cunning. “ Cluck, cluck !”
said the fowl. What it thought when it said this I cannot tell
you ; but directly our good man saw it, he thought, ‘‘ That’s the
finest fowl I’ve ever seen in my life! Why, it’s finer than our
parson’s brood hen. On my word, I should like to have that