"Indeed, sir, I've already been paid for my trouble."

"Well, at any rate, you must stop the night here."

"Thank you, sir: I've a relation in the next village whom I have not
seen for a long while, and I will pass the night with him;" and so he
took his leave, and went away.

The parents lost no time in sending to let the physician know that they
had procured the fox's liver. The next day the doctor came and
compounded a medicine for the patient, which at once produced a good
effect, and there was no little joy in the household. As luck would have
it, three days after this the man whom they had commissioned to buy the
fox's liver came to the house: so the goodwife hurried out to meet him
and welcome him.

"How quickly you fulfilled our wishes, and how kind of you to send at
once! The doctor prepared the medicine, and now our boy can get up and
walk about the room; and it's all owing to your goodness."

"Wait a bit!" cried the guest, who did not know what to make of the joy
of the two parents. "The commission with which you entrusted me about
the fox's liver turned out to be a matter of impossibility, so I came
to-day to make my excuses; and now I really can't understand what you
are so grateful to me for."

"We are thanking you, sir," replied the master of the house, bowing with
his hands on the ground, "for the fox's liver which we asked you to
procure for us."