r, and he went on
begging for him.

"Well," said Little Claus at last, "since you have been so kind as to
give me a night's shelter, I won't say nay. You must give me a bushel of
money, only I must have it full to the brim."

"You shall have it," said the farmer; "but you must take that chest away
with you. I won't have it in the house an hour longer. You could never
know that he might not still be inside."

So Little Claus gave his sack with the dried hide of the horse in it and
received a full bushel of money in return, and the measure was full to
the brim. The farmer also gave him a large wheelbarrow, with which to
take away the chest and the bushel of money.

"Good-by," said Little Claus, and off he went with his money and the
chest with the sexton in it.

On the other side of the forest was a wide, deep river, whose current
was so strong that it was almost impossible to swim against it. A large,
new bridge had just been built over it, and when they came to the middle
of the bridge Little Claus said in a voice loud enough to be heard by
the sexton: "What shall I do with this stupid old chest? It might be
full of paving stones, it is so heavy. I am tired of wheeling it. I'll
just throw it into the river. If it floats down to my home, well and
good; if not, I don't care. It will be no great matter." And he took
hold of the chest and lifted it a little, as if he were going to throw
it into the river.

"No, no! let be!" shouted the sexton. "Let me get out."

"Ho!" said Little Claus, pretending to be frightened. "Why, he is still
inside. Then I must heave it into the river to drown him."

"Oh, no, no, no!" shouted the sexton; "I'll give you a whole bushelful
of money if you'll let me out."

"Oh, that's another matter," said Little Claus, opening the chest. He
pushed the empty chest into the river and then went home with the sexton
to get his bushelful of money. He had already had one from the farmer,
you know, so now his wheelbarrow was quite full of money.

"I got a pretty fair price for that horse, I must admit," said he to
himself, when he got home and turned the money out of the wheelbarrow
into a heap in the middle of the floor. "What a rage Great Claus will be
in when he discovers how rich I am become through my one horse. But I
won't tell him just how it happened." So he sent a boy to Great Claus to
borrow a bushel measure.

"What can he want with it?" thought Great Claus, and he rubbed some
tallow o