"
"All very true, I dare say," said the mother, "but seeing is believing."
So the lad made haste, drew out a table, laid the cloth on it, and
said,--
"Cloth, spread yourself, and serve up all kinds of good dishes."
But not even a bit of dry bread did the cloth serve up.
"Well!" said the lad, "there's no help for it but to go to the North
Wind again," and away he went.
So, late in the afternoon, he came to where the North Wind lived.
"Good evening!" said the lad.
"Good evening!" said the North Wind.
"I want my rights for that meal of ours which you took," said the lad,
"for, as for that cloth I got, it isn't worth a penny."
"I have no meal," said the North Wind; "but you may have the ram yonder
which will coin gold ducats when you say to it,--
"Ram, ram! make money!"
The lad thought this a fine thing; but as it was too far to get home
that day, he turned in for the night to the same inn where he had slept
the first time.
Before he called for anything, he tried what the North Wind had said of
the ram, and found it all true. When the landlord saw this, he thought
it a fine ram, and when the lad had fallen asleep, he took another which
could not coin even a penny, and exchanged the two.
Next morning off went the lad, and when he got home to his mother, he
said,--
"After all, the North Wind is a jolly fellow, for now he has given me a
ram, which will coin golden ducats if I only say, 'Ram, ram! make
money!'"
"All very true, I dare say," said his mother, "but I shan't believe it
until I see the ducats made.
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