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250 GRIMM’S FAIRY TALES.
them; see that you do not meddle with them, or it will be the
worse for you.”
And she said, “ Oh no, Fred, certainly I won’t.”
Now, one day when Fred was away, there came some
pedlars to the village, with earthen pots and basins to sell, and
they asked the young wife if she had nothing to give in
exchange for them.
“O my good men,” said Kate, “I have no money to buy
anything with, but if you had any use for yellow counters, I
might do some business with you.”
“ Yellow counters! why not? we might as well see them,”
said they.
“Then go into the stable and dig under the cows’
manger, and you will find them; but I dare not go near the
place.”
So those rogues went and dug, and found the gold accord¬
ingly. And they seized it quickly, and ran off with it, leaving
the pots and pans behind them in the house. Kate thought
she must make some use of her new possessions, so, as she
had no need of them in the kitchen, she spread them out on
the ground, and then stuck them, one after another, for orna¬
ment, on the fence which ran round the house. When Fred
came home and saw the new decorations, he said, “ Kate, what
have you been doing ? ”
“TI bought them every one, Fred, with those yellow
counters that were buried under the manger, and I did not go
“O wife!” cried Fred, “what have you done? they were
not counters, but pure gold, and all our capital; you should
not have done so.”
“Well, Fred, I did not know; you should have told me
that before,” answered Kate.
Then Kate stood still a little while to consider, and at last
she said, "Listen, Fred, we may be able to get the gold back
again. Let us run after the thieves.”
“Very well,” said Fred, “we will try; only let us take
some bread and cheese with us, that we may have something
to eat on the way.”
‘All right,” she answered. So they set out, and as Fred
was a better walker than Kate, she was soon left behind.