up, put the bridle into his hands, and said: ‘When you want to go very fast, you must click your tongue and cry “Gee-up, Gee-up.”’
Hans was delighted when he found himself so easily riding along on horseback. After a time it occurred to him that he might be going faster, and he began to click with his tongue, and to cry ‘Gee-up, Gee-up.’ The horse broke into a gallop, and before Hans knew where he was, he was thrown off into a ditch which separated the fields from the high road. The horse would have run away if a peasant coming along the road leading a cow had not caught it. Hans felt himself all over, and picked himself up; but he was very angry, and said to the peasant: ‘Riding is poor fun at times, when you have a nag like mine, which stumbles and throws you, and puts you in danger of breaking your neck. I will never mount it again. I think much more of that cow of yours. You can walk comfortably behind her, and you have her milk into the bargain every day, as well as butter and cheese. What would I not give for a cow like that!’
‘Well,’ said the peasant, ‘if you have such a fancy for it as all that, I will exchange the cow for the horse.’
Hans accepted the offer with delight, and the peasant mounted the horse and rode rapidly off.
Hans drove his cow peacefully on, and thought what a lucky bargain he had made. ‘If only I have a bit of bread, and I don’t expect ever to be without that, I shall always have butter and cheese to eat with it. If I am thirsty, I only have to milk my cow and I have milk to drink. My heart! what more can you desire?’
When he came to an inn he made a halt, and in great joy he ate up all the food he had with him, all his dinner and his supper too, and he gave the last coins he had for half a glass of beer. Then he went on further in the direction of his mother’s village, driving his cow before him. The heat was overpowering, and, as midday drew near, Hans found himself on a heath which it took him an hour to cross. He was so