"Let them all run off to the last chick, I'm glad to be rid of the
torment; there was witchcraft in that rooster!"

But the puffed-up rooster stalked proudly along, followed by all the
fowls, and went merrily on and on till he reached the old man's house
and began to crow: "Kikeriki!"

When the old man heard the rooster's voice he ran out joyfully to meet
the bird, but looking through the door what did he see? His rooster
had become a terrible object. An elephant beside it would have seemed
like a flea; and following behind came countless flocks of birds, each
one more beautiful and brilliant than the other. When the old man saw
the rooster so huge and fat, he opened the gate for it. "Master," said
the bird, "spread a sheet here in the middle of the yard."

The old man, as nimble as a top, laid down the sheet. The rooster took
its stand upon it, spread its wings, and instantly the whole yard was
filled with birds and herds of cattle, but it shook out on the sheet a
pile of ducats that flashed in the sun till they dazzled the eyes.
When the old man beheld this vast treasure he did not know what to do
in his delight, and hugged and kissed the rooster.

But all at once the old woman appeared from somewhere, and when she
saw this marvelous spectacle her eyes glittered in her head, and she
was ready to burst with wrath.

"Dear old friend," she said, "give me a few ducats."

"Pine away with longing for them, old woman; when I begged you for
some eggs, you know what you answered. Now flog your hen, that it may
bring you ducats. I beat my rooster, and you see what it has fetched
me."

The old woman went to the hen-coop, shook the hen, took it by the
tail, and gave it such a drubbing that it was enough to make one weep
for pity. When the poor hen escaped from the old woman's hands it fled
to the highway. While walking along it found a bead, swallowed it,
hurried back home as fast as possible, and began to cackle at the
gate. The old woman welcomed it joyfully. The hen ran quickly in at
the gate, passed its mistress, and went to its nest--at the end of an
hour it jumped off, cackling loudly. The old woman hastened to see
what the hen had laid. But when she glanced into the nest what did she
perceive? A little glass bead. The hen had laid a glass bead! When the
old woman saw that the hen had fooled her, she began to beat it, and
beat till she flogged it to death. So the stupid old soul remained as
poor as a church-mous