With this the Lad was well content. But, as the way was so long he couldn’t get home in one day, so he turned into an inn on the way; and when they were going 81 to sit down to supper he laid the cloth on a table which stood in the corner, and said:
“Cloth, spread yourself, and serve up all kinds of good dishes.”
He had scarce said so before the cloth did as it was bid; and all who stood by thought it a fine thing, but most of all the landlady. So, when all were fast asleep at dead of night, she took the Lad’s cloth, and put another in its stead, just like the one he had got from the North Wind, but which couldn’t so much as serve up a bit of dry bread.
So, when the Lad woke, he took his cloth and went off with it, and that day he got home to his mother.
“Now,” said he, “I’ve been to the North Wind’s house, and a good fellow he is, for he gave me this cloth, and when I only say to it, ‘Cloth, spread yourself, and serve up all kinds of good dishes,’ I get any sort of food I please.”
“All very true, I daresay,” said his mother; “but seeing is believing, and I shan’t believe it till I see it.”
So the Lad made haste, drew out a table, laid the cloth on it, and said:
“Cloth, spread yourself, and serve up all kinds of good dishes.”
But never a bit of dry bread did the cloth serve up.