And so they were all happy ever after.
[J] From “English Fairy Tales,” collected by Joseph Jacobs; used by permission of G. P. Putnam’s Sons.
FULFILLED
It was Christmas eve, and in the great house on the hill there was much rejoicing and preparation for the feasting on the morrow. A knock came at the door, and two strangers stood there. “We have lost our way,” they said, “and the night is dark and cold, and we do not know where to go, and we would be glad to be allowed to stay for the night.”
But the farmer and his wife said “No!” very shortly. They had no room for beggars.
So the strangers went to the foot of the hill where stood the small cottage of a laborer and his wife. In this house there was much happiness, but there was no preparation for feasting on the morrow. They were poor folk, who could not keep the feast.
But when the strangers came the laborer opened the door wide and bade them enter and draw near the fire and warm themselves. And, because there was but one bed in the house, the laborer and his wife gave that to their guests, and themselves slept on straw in an outer room; but, strange to say, they never slept better in all their lives.
In the morning they urged the strangers to stay with them, as it was a feast-day, and a sorry time for travelers to be on the road. And, because there was no meat in the house, the laborer went out and killed the one goat which they owned, and his wife dressed it, and cooked it, and made a feast. Then the strangers and the laborer and his wife went to church together, and all came home and sat down to the good dinner.
And when they were departing one of the strangers said to the laborer: “How many horns had the little goat?”