"God bless you," says the soldier, looking at the beggar's rags, "I want nothing from you. You're a poor man yourself."
"Never mind my poverty," says the old beggar. "Just tell me what you would like to have, and I am well able to reward you for your kind heart."
"I don't want anything," said the soldier; "but, if you do happen to have such a thing as a pack of cards about you, I'd keep them in memory of you, and they'd be a pleasure to me on the long road."
The old beggar thrust his hand into his bosom among his rags, and pulled out a pack of cards.
"Take these," says he, "and when you play with them you'll always be winner whoever may be playing against you. And here's a flour sack for you as well. If you meet anything and want to catch it, just open the sack and tell beasts or birds or aught else to get into it, and they'll do just that, and you can close the sack and do with them what you will."
"Thank you kindly," says the soldier, throws the sack over his shoulder, puts the pack of cards in his pocket, and trudges off along the high road singing an old song.
He went on and on till he came to a lake, where he drank a little water to ease his thirst, and smoked a pipe to put off his hunger, resting by the shore of the lake. And there on the lake he saw three wild geese swimming far away. "Now if I could catch them!" thought the soldier, and remembered the sack the old beggar had given him. He opened the sack and shouted at the top of his voice: "Hi! You there, you wild geese, come into my sack!"
And the three wild geese splashed up out of the water, and flew to the bank and crowded into the sack one after the other.
The soldier tied up the mouth of the sack, flung it over his shoulder and went on his way.
He came to a town, and looked for a tavern, and chose the best he could see, and went in there and asked for the landlord.