GUDBRAND AND HIS WIFE.


There was once a man called Gudbrand, who lived in a lonely little
farm-house on a remote hillside. From this circumstance he got the name
among his neighbors of Gudbrand of the Hill.

Now, you must know that Gudbrand had an excellent wife, as sometimes
happens to a man. But the rarest thing about it was, that Gudbrand knew
the value of such a treasure; and so the two lived in perfect harmony,
enjoying their own happiness, and giving themselves no concern about
either wealth or the lapse of years. No matter what Gudbrand might do,
his wife had foreseen and desired that very thing; so that her good man
could not touch or change or move anything about the house without her
coming forward to thank him for having divined and forestalled her
wishes.

Besides, it was easy for them to get along, since the farm belonged to
them, and they had a hundred solid crowns in a drawer of their closet
and two excellent cows in their stable. They lacked nothing, and could
quietly pass their old age without fear of poverty or toil, and without
having to look to the friendship or the commiseration of any of their
fellow-creatures.

One evening, while they were talking over their various little tasks and
projects, says the wife of Gudbrand to her husband,--

'Husband, I've got a new notion in my head: you must take one of our
cows to town and sell her. We'll keep the other, and she'll be quite