"Now, that is the nicest hen I have ever seen. She is finer than our parson's hen. I should like to have her. A hen can always pick up something; she can almost keep herself. I think it would be a good exchange if I got her for the goose. Shall we exchange?" he said.
"Exchange!" said the other; "that wouldn't be so bad." So they exchanged; the toll-man got the goose, and the peasant got the hen.
He had done a good deal of business on his way to town; it was very hot, and he was very tired; he would be all the better for a piece of bread, and now he was at the inn.
He was going in, and the innkeeper was going out, so they met in the doorway.
The innkeeper carried a big sack of something.
"Apples!" answered the man; "a whole sackful for the pigs."
"Oh, that is a rare lot; I should like mother to see them. Last year we had only one single apple on the old tree by the peat-house; this apple we kept on the top of the cupboard until it cracked. 'Well, it is always property,' said mother; but here she could see any quantity of property; yes, I should like to show them to her."
"Well, what will you give for them?" asked the man.
"What will I give? I'll give my hen in exchange," he said, and so he gave his hen in exchange, got the apples, and went into the inn.
Many strangers were present in the room, and they soon heard the whole story--how the horse was exchanged for the cow, and so on, down to the apples.
"Well, your good wife will give it to you when you get home," said one of them.
"Not at all," said the peasant; "she will give me a kiss, instead of scolding me, and she will say: 'What father does is always right.'"
"Shall we wager," said the stranger, "a barrel of gold coins--a hundred pounds to a hundredweight?"
"It is quite enough to make it a bushelful," said the peasant; "I can only set the bushel of apples against it; but I will throw myself and the wife into the bargain, and that, I should say, is good measure!"
"Done!" he said; and so the wager was made.
The innkeeper's carriage came up, and the stranger got in, the peasant got in, and the apples got in, and away they all went to the peasant's house.
"Well, you understand what you are about," said the woman, and she was so glad to see him, she forgot all about the sack and the stranger.