’A nail that is useful is better than a diamond that glitters and can be turned to nothing, as my wife often says,’ reflected Gudbrand; and, with that, he traded off his horse for the hog.

It was a bright idea to be sure, but our good man had counted without his host.  Don Porker was tired, and wouldn’t budge an inch.  Gudbrand talked to him, coaxed him, swore at him, but all in vain; he dragged him by the snout, he pushed him from behind, he whacked him on both his fat sides with a cudgel, but it was only labor lost, and Mr. Hog remained there in the middle of the dusty road like a stranded whale.  The poor farmer was yielding to despair, when, at the very nick of time, there came along a country lad leading a she-goat, that, with an udder all swollen with milk, skipped, ran, and played about, in a manner charming to behold.

‘There! that’s the very thing I want!’ exclaimed Gudbrand.  ’I’d far rather have that gay, sprightly creature than this huge, stupid brute.’  Whereupon, without an instant’s hesitation, he exchanged the hog for the she-goat.

All went well for another half-hour.  The young madam with her long horns greatly amused Gudbrand, who laughed at her pranks till his sides ached.  In fact, too, the goat pulled him along; but, when one is on the wrong side of forty, one soon gets tired of scrambling over the rocks; and so the farmer, happening to meet a shepherd feeding his flock, traded his she-goat for a ewe.  ‘I’ll have just as much milk,’ mused he, ’from that animal as from the other, and, at least, she will keep quiet, and not worry either my wife or me.’

Gudbrand was right, in one respect, for there is nothing more gentle than a ewe.  This one had no tricks; she neither capered nor butted with her head, but she stood perfectly still and bleated all the time.  Finding herself separated from her companions, she wanted to rejoin them, and the more Gudbrand tugged at her tether, the more piteously she baaed.

‘Deuce take the silly brute!’ shouted Gudbrand; ’she’s as obstinate and whimpering as my neighbor’s wife.  Who’ll rid me of this bawling, bellowing little beast?  I must get clear of her, at any price.’

‘It’s a bargain, if you choose, neighbor,’ said a country fellow who was just passing, with a fat goose under his arm.  ’Here, take this fine bird, instead; she’s worth two of that ugly sheep that’s going to split its throat in less than an hour, anyhow.’

‘Done!’ said Gudbrand; ‘a live goose is as good as a dead ewe, any day;’ and so he took the goose in exchange.

But it was no easy matter to manage his new bargain.  The goose turned out to be a very disagreeable companion; for, finding itself no longer on the ground, it fought with its bill, its feet, and its wings, so that Gudbrand was soon tired of struggling to hold it.

‘Pah!’ growled he; ’the goose is an ugly, ill-grained creature, and my wife never would have one about the house.’  With this reflection, he changed the goose, at the first farm-house he came to, for a fine rooster of rich plumage and furnished with a grand pair of spurs.