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THE TABLE, THE ASS, AND THE STICK. 153
“ No,” answered the young joiner, “I could not think of
. depriving you; you had much better be my guests.”
Then they laughed, and thought he must be joking. But
. he brought his little wooden table, and put it in the middle of
the room, and said, " Table, be covered!” Immediately it
was set out with food much better than the landlord had been
able to provide, and the good smell of it greeted the noses
of the guests very agreeably. " Fall to, good friends,” said the
. joiner ; and the guests, when they saw how it was, needed no
. second asking, but taking up knife and fork fell to valiantly.
. And what seemed most wonderful was that when a dish was
. empty immediately a full one stood in its place. All the
. while the landlord stood in a corner, and watched all that
-wenton. He could not tell what to say about it; but he
. thought “such cooking as that would make my inn prosper.”
The joiner and his fellowship kept it up very merrily until late
at night. At last they went to sleep, and the young joiner,
. going to bed, left his wishing-table standing against the wall.
. The landlord, however, could not sleep for thinking of the
table, and he remembered that there was in his lumber room
an old table very like it, so he fetched it, and taking away the
joiner’s table, he left the other in its place. ‘The next morn¬
ing the joiner paid his reckoning, took up the table, not
dreaming that he was carrying off the wrong one, and went on
his way. About noon he reached home, and his father re¬
ceived him with great joy.
“Now, my dear son, what have you learned?” said he
to him.
“‘T have learned to be a joiner, father,” he answered.
“That is a good trade,” returned the father; "but what
have you brought back with you from your travels ati
“The best thing I’ve got, father, is this little table,”
said he.
The tailor looked at it on all sides, and said,
“You have certainly produced no masterpiece. It isa
trubbishing old table.”
“ But it is a very wonderful one,” answered the son. “ When
I set it down, and tell it to be covered, at once the finest
meats are standing on it, and wine so good that it cheers the
heart. Let us invite all the friends and neighbours, that they