"I have made the exchange."
"Well, you understand what you are about," said the woman, and she was so glad to see him, she forgot all about the sack and the stranger.
"I have exchanged the horse for a cow."
"Oh, how nice to get milk!" said the wife; "now we can have butter and cheese on the table; that was indeed a capital exchange!"
"Yes, but I exchanged the cow for a sheep."
"Well, that is perhaps better," said the wife; "you always think of everything. We have just enough pasture for a sheep; ewe's milk, and cheese, and woolen socks, and a woolen jacket—the cow cannot give these. How you do think of everything, to be sure!"
"But the sheep I exchanged for a goose."
"Are we really going to have roast goose for Christmas this year, father dear? You are always thinking of something to please me. This is a capital idea of yours; the goose can be tied to a string, and we will fatten her for Christmas!"
"But I exchanged the goose for a hen," said the old man.
"A hen! oh, that was a good bargain!" said the woman. "A hen lays eggs, and hatches them, and so we can get chickens—a whole poultry-yard—and that's the very thing I have always wished for."