‘Here it is then,’ said the beggar; ‘but mind the pig doesn’t get it.’
‘Never fear!’ said the peasant’s wife; and the poor man went his way.
Next day the beggar came back and claimed his hen.
‘Oh, dear me!’ said the peasant’s wife, ‘while my back was turned, the pig gobbled it up!’
Assuming an air of terrible authority, the man said: ‘Didn’t I warn you to beware lest the pig gobbled it up? Now, you must give me either the hen or the pig.’
As the peasant’s wife couldn’t give him the hen, she was obliged to give him the pig. So the poor man took the pig and went his way.
He came now to another cottage, and said to the peasant’s wife: ‘Good woman, can you take care of this pig a little space for me?’
‘Willingly!’ said the peasant’s wife; ‘put him in the yard.’
‘Mind the calf doesn’t get at him,’ said the man.
‘Never fear,’ said the peasant’s wife, and the beggar went his way.