Oh, well, that was all one to Trouble; now that he was out he would stay with the man who let him out, and there was an end of it. “So bring along the bag of gold,” says he, “for it is high time that we were going home.”
So the rich brother took the bag of gold over his shoulder, and the two went home together; and if anybody was down in the mouth, it was the rich brother.
And now everything went wrong with him, for Trouble dogged his heels wherever he went. At last his patience could hold out no longer, and he began to cudgel his brains to find some way to get rid of the other. So one day he says,
“Come, Trouble, we will go out into the forest this morning and cut some wood.”
Well, that suited Trouble as well as anything else, so off they went together, arm in arm. By and by they came to the forest, and there the man cut down a great tree. Then he split open the stump, and drove a wedge into it. So it came dinner-time, and then Trouble and he ate together.
“See now, Trouble,” said the man, “they tell me that you can go anywhere in all of the world.”
“Yes,” said Trouble, “that is so.”
“And could you go into that tree that I have split yonder?”
Oh, yes; Trouble could do that well enough.