LYING FOR A WAGER.
ONE day a father sent his son to the mill with corn to grind; but before he went he recommended him not to grind it in the mill in which he should happen to meet with a man named ‘Beardless.’[31] The boy came to a mill, but there he found Beardless.
[31] The ‘Beardless,’ in Serbian national tales, is the personification of craft and sharpness. [Back]
‘God bless you, Beardless,’ said he.
‘God bless you too, my son,’ replied the man.
‘Can I grind my corn here?’ asked the boy.
‘Why not?’ responded Beardless; ‘my corn will be soon ready, and you can grind yours as long as you like.’
But the boy recollected his father’s advice, and left the mill and went to another. But Beardless took some corn, and hurried by a shorter way, to the mill towards which the boy had gone, and reached there before him, and put some of his corn into the mill to be ground. When the boy arrived, he was greatly surprised to find Beardless there, and so he went away from this and approached a third mill. But Beardless hurried by a short cut, and reached this mill also before the boy, and gave some of his corn to be ground. He did the same at a fourth mill; so the boy got tired, and, thinking that he should find Beardless in every mill, put down his sack, and resolved to grind in this mill, although Beardless was there.
When the boy’s corn came to be ground, Beardless said to him, ‘Hearken, my son. Let us make a cake of your flour.’