By this time he was very near the town.  The crowd on the highroad became greater and greater; there was quite a crush of men and cattle.  They walked in the road, and close by the paling; and at the barrier they even walked into the tollman’s potato field, where his own fowl was strutting about with a string to its legs, lest it should take fright at the crowd, and stray away, and so be lost.  This fowl had short tail feathers, and winked with both its eyes, and looked very cunning.  “Cluck! cluck!” said the fowl.  What it thought when it said this I cannot tell you; but as soon as our good man saw it, he thought, “That’s the finest fowl I’ve ever seen in my life!  Why, it’s finer than our parson’s brood hen.  On my word, I should like to have that fowl.  A fowl can always find a grain or two, and can almost keep itself.  I think it would be a good exchange if I could get that in exchange for my goose.  Shall we exchange?” he asked the toll taker.

“Exchange!” repeated the man; “well, that would not be a bad thing.”

And so they exchanged; the toll taker at the barrier kept the goose, and the peasant carried away the fowl.

Now, he had done a good deal of business on his way to the fair, and he was hot and tired.  He wanted something to eat and to drink; and soon he was in front of the inn.  He was just about to step in, when the hostler came out; so they met at the door.  The hostler was carrying a sack.

“What have you in that sack?” asked the peasant.

“Rotten apples,” answered the hostler; “a whole sackful of them—­enough to feed the pigs with.”

“Why, that’s terrible waste!  I should like to take them to my old woman at home.  Last year the old tree by the turf-hole only bore a single apple, and we kept it in the cupboard till it was quite rotten and spoiled, ‘It was always property,’ my old woman said; but here she could see a quantity of property—­a whole sackful.  Yes, I shall be glad to show them to her.”

“What will you give me for the sackful?” asked the hostler.

“What will I give?  I will give my fowl in exchange.”

And he gave the fowl accordingly, and received the apples, which he carried into the guest room.  He leaned the sack carefully by the stove, and then went to the table.  But the stove was hot; he had not thought of that.  Many guests were present—­horse dealers, ox-herds, and two Englishmen—­and the two Englishmen were so rich that their pockets bulged out with gold coins, and almost burst; and they could wager, too, as you shall hear.

Hiss-s-s! hiss-s-s!  What was that by the stove?  The apples were beginning to roast.

“What is that?”

“Why, do you know—–­” said our peasant.

And he told the whole story of the horse that he had exchanged for a cow, and all the rest of it down to the apples.

“Well, your old woman will give it you well when you get home,” said one of the Englishmen.  “There will be a disturbance.”