Hans and Peter.
Hans and Peter met one fine morning on the way to market. Hans was large and stout; the world always went easily with him; he troubled himself as little as possible about the cares of life, and seemed to grow plumper every day.
Peter, on the other hand, was thin and slim. He was continually worrying himself about some trifle, and his face grew more and more care-worn every day.
"Good morrow, friend Peter," said plump Hans, in a hearty tone of cheer.
"Good-day, neighbor!" answered Peter, solemnly.
"Why are you so downcast?" asked Hans.
"Downcast! Have you no troubles," retorted Peter, "that you cannot understand why people look downcast?"
"I?" said jovial Hans. "I've only one trouble in the world, and that does not trouble me. My wife complains because I have become so stout."
"Happy man!" exclaimed Peter. "My friends complain because I am so thin."
"My friends say it makes me move too slowly," said Hans.
"My wife upbraids me," returned Peter, "because I move so very quickly."
"Suppose we change bodies!" said they both in a breath. And they changed.
Again, in a few months, Hans and Peter met one fine morning; and Hans was again large and stout, while Peter had become thin and slim.
"What have you done to my body?" asked Hans.
"What have you done to my body?" asked Peter.
"I was puzzled at first," said Hans, "to know whether I was Hans or Peter; but it soon came right."
"At first," returned Peter, "I knew not whether I was Peter or Hans, but as you say, it soon came right."
"Then the difference," remarked Hans, "is not my body."
"Nor my body," put in Peter.
"But," said they both, "ourselves!"
"Worse and worse," said King Jollimon, at the conclusion of the remarkable legend. "If there were four of you, I shudder to think what a bad story the fourth one would tell!"
"It is because we did not know your majesty's taste," said the man with the crooked back. "If you would hear us once more, we should please you better."
"I have heard enough," said the king; but upon second thought he consented that they should try again.
And first the crooked-backed man told the tale of