When in spring he ploughed his own worn-out land, and reached the top of the furrow where his field joined one of the richly-fed fields of his neighbour, he would cast an envious glance over the hedge, and say, “So far and no farther?” for he would have liked to have had the whole under his plough.  And so in the autumn, when he gathered his own scanty crop and had to stop his sickle short of the close ranks of his neighbour’s corn, he would cry, “All this, and none of that?” and go home sorely discontented.

Now on the lands of the liberal farmer (whose name was Merryweather) there lived a dwarf or hillman, who made a wager that he would both beg and borrow of the covetous farmer, and out-bargain him to boot.  So he went one day to his house, and asked him if he would kindly give him half a stone of flour to make hasty pudding with; adding, that if he would lend him a bag to carry it in to the hill, this should be returned clean and in good condition.

The farmer saw with half an eye that this was the dwarf from his neighbour’s estate, and as he had always laid the luck of the liberal farmer to his being favoured by the good people, he resolved to treat the little man with all civility.

“Look you, wife,” said he, “this is no time to be saving half a stone of flour when we may make our fortunes at one stroke.  I have heard my grandfather tell of a man who lent a sack of oats to one of the fairies, and got it back filled with gold pieces.  And as good measure as he gave of oats so he got of gold;” saying which, the farmer took a canvas bag to the flour-bin, and began to fill it.  Meanwhile the dwarf sat in the larder window and cried—­“We’ve a big party for supper to-night; give us good measure, neighbour, and you shall have anything under the sun that you like to ask for.”

When the farmer heard this he was nearly out of his wits with delight, and his hands shook so that the flour spilled all about the larder floor.

“Thank you, dear sir,” he said; “it’s a bargain, and I agree to it.  My wife hears us, and is witness.  Wife! wife!” he cried, running into the kitchen, “I am to have anything under the sun that I choose to ask for.  I think of asking for neighbour Merryweather’s estate, but this is a chance never likely to happen again, and I should like to make a wise choice, and that is not easy at a moment’s notice.”

“You will have a week to think it over in,” said the dwarf, who had come in behind him; “I must be off now, so give me my flour, and come to the hill behind your house seven days hence at midnight, and you shall have your share of the bargain.”

So the farmer tied up the flour-sack, and helped the dwarf with it on to his back, and as he did so he began thinking how easily the bargain had been made, and casting about in his mind whether, he could not get more where he had so easily got much.

“And half a stone of flour is half a stone of flour,” he muttered to himself, “and whatever it may do with thriftless people, it goes a long way in our house.  And there’s the bag—­and a terrible lot spilled on the larder floor—­and the string to tie it with, which doubtless he’ll never think of returning—­and my time, which must be counted, and nothing whatever for it all for a week to come.”  And the outlay so weighed upon his mind that he cleared his throat and began: