“Wonderful cloth, let him who is hungry and thirsty find here everything
he wants.”
Immediately they heard a hissing noise in the air, something shone above
them, and they found a fine table, spread as for a royal feast in front
of them. They ate and drank, and then the table disappeared. As the
simpleton was about to continue his journey, the soldier said—
“Will you give me your cloth in exchange for this hat with six corners.
It shoots of itself, and hits, in an instant, whatever you wish. You
have only to turn it round on your head, and say—‘Hat which fires, to
please me, strike what I tell you.’ Then it shoots with such a sure aim
that if your enemy were a mile away he would bite the dust.”
The lad thought it would be well to have the hat, for how useful would
it be in time of danger, and when he wished to serve his king and
country. So he gave the cloth to the soldier, tied the girdle again
round his waist, put the hat upon his head, took his stick in his hand,
and went on once more.
He had not gone far when he thought of what the oak had told him about
the cloth, and of how he wanted to surprise his mother with it. So he
said to his stick—
“Stick, that beats of itself, go quickly and look for my cloth. Go, I
want it back.”
The cudgel went off after the soldier, overtook him, and commenced to
beat him, crying—
“So you seek the wealth of others, do you? Take that, knave, and that.”
The soldier, who was lusty in spite of his wounds, set himself on his
guard, and would have given blow for blow, but the stick laid on so
rapidly that he at last gave in. Overcome by the pain, he threw down the
cloth and fled. The stick took the cloth to its master, who continued
his journey.
At length he came out of the wood. He crossed over the fields, and
already saw his father’s house before him, when he met his brothers,
who, running to him, said impatiently—
“Well, simpleton, where are the golden acorns?”