‘What can this be?’ thought he. ‘I’ll dig a bit and see.’
So he dug and dug, and at last he came on a little pot full of gold and silver.
‘Oh, what luck! Now, if only I knew how I could take this treasure home with me——but I can never hope to hide it from my wife, and once she knows of it she’ll tell all the world, and then I shall get into trouble.’
He sat down and thought over the matter a long time, and at last he made a plan. He covered up the pot again with earth and twigs, and drove on into the town, where he bought a live pike and a live hare in the market.
Then he drove back to the forest and hung the pike up at the very top of a tree, and tied up the hare in a fishing net and fastened it on the edge of a little stream, not troubling himself to think how unpleasant such a wet spot was likely to be to the hare.
Then he got into his cart and trotted merrily home.
‘Wife!’ cried he, the moment he got indoors. ‘You can’t think what a piece of good luck has come our way.’
‘What, what, dear husband? Do tell me all about it at once.’
‘No, no, you’ll just go off and tell everyone.’
‘No, indeed! How can you think such things! For shame! If you like I will swear never to——’