very
curious to him, so he returned and asked him: "Tell me, what do you mean
by eating the first _carlino_, putting the second out to interest,
giving back the third, and throwing away the fourth?" The peasant
answered: "With the first I feed myself; with the second I feed my
children, who must care for me when I am old; with the third I feed my
father, and so repay him for what he has done for me, and with the
fourth I feed my wife, and thus throw it away, because I have no profit
from it." "Yes," said the king, "you are right. Promise me, however,
that you will not tell any one this until you have seen my face a
hundred times." The peasant promised and the king rode home well
pleased.

While sitting at table with his ministers, he said: "I will give you a
riddle: A peasant earns four _carlini_ a day; the first he eats; the
second he puts out at interest; the third he gives back, and the fourth
he throws away. What is that?" No one was able to answer it.

One of the ministers remembered finally that the king had spoken the day
before with the peasant, and he resolved to find the peasant and obtain
from him the answer. When he saw the peasant he asked him for the answer
to the riddle, but the peasant answered: "I cannot tell you, for I have
promised the king to tell no one until I have seen his face a hundred
times." "Oh!" said the minister, "I can show you the king's face," and
drew a hundred coins from his purse and gave them to the peasant. On
every coin the king's face was to be seen of course. After the peasant
had looked at each coin once, he said: "I have now seen the king's face
a hundred times, and can tell you the answer to the riddle," and told
him it.

The minister went in great glee to the king and said: "Your Majesty, I
have found the answer to the riddle; it is so and so." The king
exclaimed: "You can have heard it only from the peasant himself," had
the peasant summoned, and took him to task. "Did you not promise me not
to tell it until you had seen my face a hundred times?" "But, your
Majesty," answered the peasant, "your minister showed me your picture a
hundred times." Then he showed him the bag of money that the minister
had given him. The king was so pleased with the clever peasant that he
rewarded him, and made him a rich man for the rest of his life.[26]

CVIII. THE CLEVER GIRL.

Once upon a time there was a huntsman who had a wife and two children, a
son and a daughter; and all lived tog