he might as well chance the bottle and go
home. So he took the bottle and gave the cow in place of it, and went
home.

'When his wife knew what he had done, she went near losing her wits; and
she called him all the names; and the children were crying with the
hunger. And the poor man didn't know what to do; and he sat down, and he
put the bottle on the table and opened it.

'And as soon as he did that, two men came out of it, and they began to
lay a cloth, and to set out every sort of food on it. And the man and
his wife and the children sat down and eat their fill.

'And everything the farmer would wish for after that, he had but to open
the bottle and the two men would come out, and would bring him what he
wanted. So he grew to be rich, and the neighbours heard how he came by
his money. And his landlord got word of it, and he came and asked would
he sell the bottle to him.

'But he refused to part with it; but after a while the landlord got him
to his own house, and gave him drink; and, not being in his clear
senses, he consented to give up the bottle for four acres of good land.

'But after a while he had all his riches spent, and someway nothing went
well with him; and at last he found himself the same way he was before,
with but one cow left of all his stock, and the children crying with
hunger.

'So he set off with the one cow; and he went to the same place he met
with the man with the bottle before, and he was there before him. And he
told him all that had happened, and the way it was with him now; and the
man gave him another bottle, and brought away the cow.

'So he hurried back home with the bottle, and set it on the table and
drew the cork, and the children were waiting round the table for the
good dinner they would have. But when the bottle was opened, two men
came out with blackthorns in their hands, and they began to beat the
farmer and his wife and all about them; and it was blows the poor
children got in place of food.

'Well, as soon as the men went into the bottle again, the farmer put in
the cork, and he went away to the landlord's house. And there was a
great ball going on there; and the farmer asked could he see the
landlord.

'So he came down to him, and the farmer said he had got a new bottle,
and that maybe the ladies and gentlemen would like to see all it would
do. So the landlord agreed, and brought him up to the ballroom, and he
put down the bottle and opened the cork. And when it w