And he left the little man standing there and went on his way. He began to cut down a tree, but he had not been at work long before he made a false stroke, and the ax cut so deeply into his arm that he had to go [[28]]home and have it bound up. This was the little gray man’s doing.
The second son was now the one to go into the forest to cut wood, and the mother gave him, as she had given the eldest, a sweet cake and a bottle of wine. The little old gray man met him, too, and asked for a piece of cake and a drink of wine; but the second son made the same sensible answer: “What I give to you I cannot have for myself. Be off!”
And he left the little man standing there and went on his way. His punishment, [[29]]however, was not long delayed; when he had made a few strokes at the tree he struck himself in the leg, and had to be carried home.
Then the stupid son said to his father, “Father, let me go and cut wood.”
The father replied: “Your brothers have hurt themselves. Leave it alone. You know nothing about it.”
But he begged so long that at last the father said, “Well, go then; you will be wiser when you have hurt yourself.”
His mother gave him a cake made with water and baked in the cinders, and with it a bottle of sour beer. When he came to the forest the little old gray man met him in the same way, greeted him, and said, “Give me a piece of your cake and a taste of your wine; I am very hungry and thirsty.”
“I have only a cake baked in ashes,” replied the simple youth, “and sour beer. If that will suit you, we will sit down and eat together.”
So they sat down; but when the youth took out his cake it was a fine sweet cake, [[30]]and the sour beer was good wine. They ate and drank, and then the little man said: “Because you have a good heart and are willing to share what you have, I will give you good luck. There stands an old tree. Cut it down and you will find something at the roots.” Then the old man took leave of him.