"No! he knew nothing about it.
"'When you have this ring on your finger,' said the king, 'you can have anything you wish for."
"So the lad thanked the king, and the king and the prince bade him God speed home, and told him to be sure and take care of the ring.
"So he had not gone far on his way before he thought he would prove what the ring was worth, and so he wished himself a new suit of clothes, and he had scarce wished for them before he had them on him. And now he was as grand and bright as a new-struck penny. So he thought it would be fine fun to play his father a trick.
"'He was not so very nice all the time I was at home;' and so he wished he was standing before his father's door, just as ragged as he was of old, and in a second he stood at the door.
"'Good day, father, and thank you for our last meal,' said the lad.
"But when the father saw that he had come back still more ragged and tattered than when he set out, he began to bellow and to bemoan himself.
"'There's no helping you,' he said. 'You have not so much as earned clothes to your back all the time you have been away.'
"'Don't be in such a way, father,' said the lad, 'you ought never to judge a man by his clothes; and now you shall be my spokesman, and go up to the palace and woo the king's daughter for me.' That was what the lad said.
"'Oh, fie, fie,' said the father, 'this is only gibing and jeering.'