Page:Popular Tales and Romances of the Northern Nations (Volume 2).djvu/317

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KIBITZ.




There was once a poor peasant named Kibitz, who, though but little favoured by fortune, enjoyed nevertheless more contentment and satisfaction than many of his more prosperous neighbours; his chief maxim was to make the best that he could of every thing; and, if affairs proceeded untowardly, to hope that they might take a turn for the better, without vexing himself unnecessarily. One day as he was ploughing his little field with his two oxen, he thought that he heard some one call him, and looking round perceived that it was a bird which repeated his name several times; it being the kibitz or pewit, whose cry resembles the sound of its own name. The simple

Vol. II.
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