Owlglass eats the Priest’s Fowl.
When told to fetch a pail full of water, he brought it only half full, and when he was to put two logs of wood on the fire, he only put one on. The cook saw well enough that all this was done to vex her, and said to her master that if he kept such a perverse fellow in his house she would leave it. Owlglass defended himself, saying, it was quite natural that having only one eye she should see the work only half done. At this the Priest laughed; but to appease his cook was obliged to dismiss his man, promising, however, that he would be a friend to him.
[V.]
How Owlglass was forbidden the Duchy of Luneburgh, and bought himself Land of his own.
Owlglass had played so many pranks in the Duchy of Luneburgh that he was forbidden the land, the Duke giving orders that if found there he should be hanged. Nevertheless, he continued to pass through the Duchy whenever his road led that way; but one day, as he was riding along devoid of care, he saw the Duke himself coming with several followers. Then he said to himself, “If I fly I shall be pursued and cut down, and, if I remain as I am, the Duke will come up in great anger and have me hanged on the nearest tree;” and most provokingly one stood close by. There was not much time for consideration, and none to be lost, so, jumping off his horse, he killed the animal, and, ripping it open, took his stand in its inside. Now when the Duke came up to him he was astonished at his impudence, and still more so at his extraordinary position. “Did I not promise you,” he said, “that, if found in my territory, you should be surely hanged? What have you to say for yourself?” Owlglass answered, “I put my trust in your Grace’s goodness, and that you will not carry your threat into execution, seeing that I have not done anything to deserve hanging.” “Well,” said the Duke, “let me hear what you have to say in your defence, or rather, tell me why you are standing inside your horse?” Owlglass answered, “I sorely feared your Grace’s displeasure, and thought I had better be found in my own property, where I ought to be safe.” The Duke laughed, and said, “As long as you remain where you are you shall be safe,” and then rode away.
Owlglass made the best of his way over the frontier; but it was not long before he had occasion again to be in the Duchy of Luneburgh, and hearing that the Duke was coming to the neighbourhood where he was, he straightway got a cart and horse, and going up to a peasant, whom he saw digging in a field, he asked whose land it was. The peasant said it was his own, for he had lately inherited it. Hereupon Owlglass asked for how much he would sell him his cart full of earth. They agreed for a shilling; and Owlglass paying the money, filled his cart with earth, in which he buried himself up to his arm-pits, and drove leisurely on his way.