man, and then put the shoe in the road before him again.

When the man came with the ox and saw the shoe, he was
quite vexed at having been so stupid as to leave the fellow to it
lying where it was, instead of bringing it on with him.

`I will just run back again and fetch it now,' he said to himself,
`and then I shall take back a pair of good shoes to the old woman,
and she may perhaps throw a kind word to me for once.'

So he went and searched and searched for the other shoe for a
long, long time, but no shoe was to be found, and at last he was
forced to go back with the one which he had.

In the meantime the youth had taken the ox and gone off with
it. When the man got there and found that his ox was gone, he
began to weep and wail, for he was afraid that when his old woman
got to know she would be the death of him. But all at once it came
into his head to go home and get the other ox, and drive it to the town,
and take good care that his old wife knew nothing about it. So he
did this; he went home and took the ox without his wife's knowing
about it, and went on his way to the town with it. But the robbers
they knew it well, because they got out their magic. So they told
the youth that if he could take this ox also without the man knowing
anything about it, and without doing him any hurt, he should
then be on an equality with them.

`Well, that will not be a very hard thing to do,' thought the
youth.