“I think I might have fared much worse,” said Gudbrand; “but whether I have fared well or ill, I have such a kind wife that she never says anything, no matter what I do.”
“Aye, so you say; but you won’t get me to believe it,” said the neighbor.
“Shall we have a wager on it?” said Gudbrand. “I have a hundred dollars in my chest at home. Will you lay the same?”
So they made the wager and Gudbrand remained there till the evening, when it began to get dark, and then they went together to the farm.
The neighbor was to remain outside the door and listen while Gudbrand went in to his wife.
“Good evening!” said Gudbrand when he came in.
“Good evening!” said the wife. “Heaven be praised you are back again.”
“Yes, here I am!” said the man. And then the wife asked him how he had got on in town.
“Oh, so-so,” answered Gudbrand. “Not much to brag of. When I came to town no one would buy the cow, so I changed it for a horse.”
“Oh, I’m so glad of that,” said the woman. “We are pretty well off and we ought to drive to church like other people, and when we can afford to keep a horse I don’t see why we should not have one. Run out, children, and put the horse in the stable.”