tened his leg from behind his ear and
started off to the end of the world, and when he came there he filled
the flask and came back with it, and Simple went with it to the palace,
arriving just as the King and the Princess were finishing their dinner.

"That is all very well," said the King, "but we cannot have this fellow
wed the Princess. We will prepare a feast, and tell him that it must be
eaten at once. Let forty oxen be killed, and five hundred loaves be
prepared and five hundred cakes be baked, and all of these must this
fellow and his followers eat."

The man with the wonderful hearing having his ear to the deck of the
ship reported this conversation to Simple, who lamented and said: "How
can we eat forty oxen, and five hundred loaves and five hundred cakes!
It will take us a year to eat so much, or maybe all of the rest of our
lives."

"Oh," said the hungry man, who had long since eaten the few loaves from
his basket, "you forget that I am here. Perhaps now for the first time
in my life I shall have enough to eat."

So when the feast was served they all sat down to it, and ate as they
wished; then the hungry man ate the remainder of the forty oxen and the
five hundred loaves and the five hundred cakes and there was not a crumb
left. When he had quite finished he said that he could have eaten at
least two more oxen and another hundred cakes, but that he was not quite
so hungry as he had been.

When the King's messengers told him that the feast was all eaten that
same night he said: "That is all very well, but we cannot have this
fellow wed the Princess. We will prepare a drinking, and serve five
hundred flagons of wine, and tell him that it must all be drunken that
same night, or he cannot wed the Princess. Let the flagons of wine be
prepared and served to him, and all of them must this fellow and his
followers drink."

The man with the wonderful hearing having his ear to the deck of the
ship reported this to Simple, who lamented and said: "How can we drink
five hundred flagons of wine? It will take us a year to do so, or maybe
all of the rest of our lives."

But the thirsty man said, "You forget that I am here. Perhaps now for
the first time in my life I shall have enough to drink."

So when the wine was served they all gathered around the table and drank
as much as they wanted of it; then the thirsty man picked up flagon
after flagon and drank them off until all were empty. And at the end he
said tha