d
there he went in.

"How did you get on in town?" asked the people.

"Oh, only so-so," said the man. "I can't boast of my luck, nor can I
grumble at it either." And then he told them how it had gone with him
from first to last.

"Well, you'll have a fine reception when you get home to your wife,"
said the man. "Heaven help you! I should not like to be in your place."

"I think I might have fared much worse," said Gudbrand; "but whether I
have fared well or ill, I have such a kind wife that she never says
anything, no matter what I do."

"Aye, so you say; but you won't get me to believe it," said the
neighbor.

"Shall we have a wager on it?" said Gudbrand. "I have a hundred dollars
in my chest at home. Will you lay the same?"

So they made the wager and Gudbrand remained there till the evening,
when it began to get dark, and then they went together to the farm.

The neighbor was to remain outside the door and listen while Gudbrand
went in to his wife.

"Good evening!" said Gudbrand when he came in.

"Good evening!" said the wife. "Heaven be praised you are back again."

"Yes, here I am!" said the man. And then the wife asked him how he had
got on in town.

"Oh, so-so," answered Gudbrand. "Not much to brag of. When I came to
town no one would buy the cow, so I changed it for a horse."

"Oh, I'm so glad of that," said the woman. "We are pretty well off and
we ought to drive to church like other people, and when we can afford to
keep a horse I don't see why we should not have one. Run out, children,
and put the horse in the stable."

"Well, I haven't got the horse, after all," said Gudbrand; "for when I
had got a bit on the way I changed it for a pig."

"Dear me!" cried the woman, "that's the very thing I should have done
myself. I'm so glad of that, for now we can have some bacon in the house
and something to offer people when they come to see us. What do we want
with a horse? People would only say we had become so grand that we could
no longer walk to church. Run out, children, and let the pig in."

"But I haven't got the pig either," said Gudbrand, "for when I had got a
bit farther on the road I changed it into a milch goat."

"Dear! dear! how well you manage everything!" cried the wife. "When I
really come to think of it, what do I want with the pig? People would
only say: 'Over yonder they eat up everything they have.' No, now I have
a goat I can have both milk and cheese and keep the goat into th