After that he went on homeward till he reached his nearest neighbor's
house, where he turned in.

"Well," said the owner of the house, "how did things go with you in
town?"

"Rather so-so," said Gudbrand, "I can't praise my luck, nor do I blame
it either," and with that he told the whole story from first to last.

"Ah!" said his friend, "you'll get nicely hauled over the coals, when
you go home to your wife. Heaven help you, I wouldn't stand in your
shoes for anything."

"Well," said Gudbrand-on-the-Hillside, "I think things might have gone
much worse with me; but now, whether I have done wrong or not, I have so
kind a good wife she never has a word to say against anything that I
do."

"Oh!" answered his neighbor, "I hear what you say, but I don't believe
it for all that."

"And so you doubt it?" asked Gudbrand-on-the-Hillside.

"Yes," said the friend, "I have a hundred crowns, at the bottom of my
chest at home, I will give you if you can prove what you say."

So Gudbrand stayed there till evening, when it began to get dark, and
then they went together to his house, and the neighbor was to stand
outside the door and listen, while the man went in to his wife.