The farm was their own
land, and they had a hundred dollars lying at the bottom of their chest
and two cows tethered up in a stall in their farmyard.
So one day his wife said to Gudbrand, "Do you know, dear, I think we
ought to take one of our cows into town and sell it; that's what I
think; for then we shall have some money in hand, and such well-to-do
people as we ought to have ready money as other folks have. As for the
hundred dollars in the chest yonder, we can't make a hole in our
savings, and I'm sure I don't know what we want with more than one cow.
"Besides, we shall gain a little in another way, for then I shall get
off with only looking after one cow, instead of having, as now, to feed
and litter and water two."
Well, Gudbrand thought his wife talked right good sense, so he set off
at once with the cow on the way to town to sell her; but when he got to
the town, there was no one who would buy his cow.
"Well, well, never mind," said Gudbrand, "at the worst, I can only go
back home with my cow. I've both stable and tether for her, and the road
is no farther out than in." And with that he began to toddle home with
his cow.
But when he had gone a bit of the way, a man met him who had a horse to
sell. Gudbrand thought 'twas better to have a horse than a cow, so he
traded with the man.
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