praised, there's no lack of moss a great deal softer than down. So, let
us put the rooster in the corn-yard!'

'I have not brought even the rooster,' murmured Gudbrand, 'for, at
sundown, I felt very hungry, and had to sell my rooster for a shilling
to buy something to eat. If it hadn't been for that I must have starved
to death.'

'God be thanked for giving you that lucky thought,' replied the wife.
'All that you do, Gudbrand, is just after my own heart. What need we of
a rooster? We are our own masters, I think; there is no one to give us
orders, and we can stay in bed just as long as we please. Here you are,
my dear husband, safe and sound. I am perfectly satisfied, and have need
of nothing more than your presence to make me happy.'

Upon this, Gudbrand opened the door;--'Well! neighbor Peter, what do you
say to that? Go, now, and bring me your twenty crowns!' So saying,
Gudbrand hugged and kissed his wife with as much fervor and heartiness
as though he and she had just been wedded, in the bloom of youth.


PART III.

But the narrative does not end with the events described in the last
chapter. There is a reverse to every medal, and even daylight would not
be so charming were it not followed by night. However good and perfect
woman may, generally, be, there are some who by no means share the easy
disposition of Gudbrand's better half. Need I say that the fault is,
usually, in the husband? If he were only to yield, on all occasions,
would he be troubled? Yield? exclaim some fierce moustachioed