"
"Well! how shall I manage that?" asked Hans.
"You must become a grinder like me; to this trade nothing peculiar
belongs but a grindstone; the other necessaries find themselves. Here is
one which is a little worn, certainly, and so I will not ask anything
more for it than your goose; are you agreeable?"
"How can you ask me?" said Hans; "why, I shall be the luckiest man in
the world; having money as often as I dip my hand into my pocket, what
have I to care about any longer?"
So saying, he handed over the goose, and received the grindstone in
exchange.
"Now," said the Grinder, picking up an ordinary big flint stone which
lay near, "now, there you have a capital stone upon which only beat them
long enough and you may straighten all your old nails! Take it, and use
it carefully!"
Hans took the stone and walked on with a satisfied heart, his eyes
glistening with joy. "I must have been born," said he, "to a heap of
luck; everything happens just as I wish, as if I were a Sunday-child."
Soon, however, having been on his legs since daybreak, he began to feel
very tired, and was plagued too with hunger, since he had eaten all his
provision at once in his joy about the cow bargain. At last he felt
quite unable to go farther, and was forced, too, to halt every minute
for the stones encumbered him very much. Just then the thought overcame
him, what a good thing it were if he had no need to carry them any
longer, and at the same moment he came up to a stream.
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