snow falls." So they took him before the next justice of the peace, to give an account of himself and show that he came honestly by his wealth; and then he told them that he had sold his hides for one thousand dollars. When they heard it, they all killed their oxen, that they might sell the hides to the same tanner; but the justice said, "My maid shall have the first chance"; so off she went: but when she came to the tanner, he laughed at them all for a parcel of noodles, and said he had given their neighbour nothing but an old chest.
At this they were all very angry, and laid their heads together to work him some mischief, which they thought they could do while he was digging in his garden. All this, however, came to the ears of the countryman, who was plagued with a sad scold for his wife; and he thought to himself, "If any one is to come into trouble, I don't see why it should not be my wife rather than Pee-wit"; so he told her that he wished she would humour him in a whim he had taken into his head, and would put on his clothes and dig the garden in his stead.
The wife did what was asked, and next morning began digging. But soon came some of the neighbours, and, thinking it was Pee-wit, threw a stone at her,—harder, perhaps, than they meant,—and killed her at once. Poor Pee-wit was rather sorry at this; but still he thought that he had had a lucky escape for himself, and that perhaps he might, after all, turn the death of his wife to some account: so he dressed her in her own clothes, put a basket with fine fruit (which was now scarce, it being winter) into her hand, and set her by the road-side, on a broad bench. After a while came by a fine coach with six horses, servants, and outriders, and within sat a noble lord, who lived not far off. When his lordship saw the
