One day a father sent his boy to the mill with corn to be ground, and, at the moment of his departure, he warned him not to grind it in any mill where he should happen to find a beardless man.[6]
When the boy came to a mill, he was therefore disappointed to find that the miller was beardless.
“God bless you, Beardless!” saluted the boy.
“May God help you!” returned the miller.
“May I grind my corn here?” asked the boy.
“Yes, why not?” responded the beardless one, “my corn will be soon ground; you can then grind yours as long as you please.”
But the boy, remembering his father’s warning, left this mill and went to another up the brook. But Beardless took some grain and, hurrying by a shorter way, reached the second mill first and put some of his corn there to be ground. When the boy arrived and saw that the miller was again a beardless man, he hastened to a third mill; but again Beardless hurried by a short cut, and reached it before the boy. He did the same at a fourth mill, so that the boy concluded that all millers are beardless men. He therefore put down his sack, and when the corn of Beardless was ground he took his turn at the mill. When all of his grain had been ground Beardless proposed: “Listen, my boy! Let us make a loaf of your flour.”
The boy had not forgotten his father’s injunction to have nothing to do with beardless millers, but as he saw no way out of it, he accepted the proposal. So Beardless now took all the flour, mixed it with water, which the boy brought him, and thus made a very large loaf. Then they fired the oven and baked the loaf, which, when finished, they placed against the wall.
Then the miller proposed: “Listen, my boy! If we were now to divide this loaf between us, there would be little enough for either of us, let us therefore tell each other stories, and whoever tells the greatest lie shall have the whole loaf for himself.”
The boy reflected a little and, seeing no way of helping himself, said: “Very well, but you must begin.”