When midnight struck the wolves howled and the dogs barked, and the
wolves spoke in their own tongue, saying:

'Shall we come in and work havoc, and you too shall eat flesh?' And
the dogs answered in their tongue: 'Come in, and for once we shall have
enough to eat.'

Now amongst the dogs there was one so old that he had only two teeth
left in his head, and he spoke to the wolves, saying: 'So long as I have
my two teeth still in my head, I will let no harm be done to my master.'

All this the master heard and understood, and as soon as morning dawned
he ordered all the dogs to be killed excepting the old dog. The farm
servants wondered at this order, and exclaimed: 'But surely, sir, that
would be a pity?'

The master answered: 'Do as I bid you'; and made ready to return home
with his wife, and they mounted their horses, her steed being a mare.
As they went on their way, it happened that the husband rode on ahead,
while the wife was a little way behind. The husband's horse, seeing
this, neighed, and said to the mare: 'Come along, make haste; why are
you so slow?' And the mare answered: 'It is very easy for you, you carry
only your master, who is a thin man, but I carry my mistress, who is so
fat that she weights as much as three.' When the husband heard that he
looked back and laughed, which the wife perceiving, she urged on the
mare till she caught up with her husband, and asked him why he laughed.
'For nothing at all,' he answered; 'just because it came into my head.'
She would not be satisfied with this answer, and urged him more and more
to tell her why he had laughed. But he controlled himself and said: 'Let
me be, wife; what ails you? I do not know myself why I laughed.' But the
more he put her off, the more she tormented him to tell her the cause of
his laughter. At length he said to her: 'Know, then, that if I tell it
you I shall immediately and surely die.' But even this did not quiet
her; she only besought him the more to tell her.

Meanwhile they had reached home, and before getting down from his horse
the man called for a coffin to be brought; and when it was there he
placed it in front of the house, and said to his wife:

'See, I will lay myself down in this coffin, and will then tell you why
I laughed, for as soon as I have told you I shall surely die.' So he lay
down in the coffin, and while he took a last look around him, his old
dog came out from the farm and sat down by him, and whined. When the
ma