Now, one day when Fred was away, there came some pedlars to the village,
with earthen pots and basins to sell, and they asked the young wife if
she had nothing to give in exchange for them.
"O my good men," said Kate, "I have no money to buy anything with, but
if you had any use for yellow counters, I might do some business with
you."
"Yellow counters! why not? we might as well see them," said they.
"Then go into the stable and dig under the cows' manger, and you will
find them; but I dare not go near the place."
So those rogues went and dug, and found the gold accordingly. And they
seized it quickly, and ran off with it, leaving the pots and pans behind
them in the house. Kate thought she must make some use of her new
possessions, so, as she had no need of them in the kitchen, she spread
them out on the ground, and then stuck them, one after another, for
ornament, on the fence which ran round the house. When Fred came home
and saw the new decorations, he said, "Kate, what have you been doing?"
"I bought them every one, Fred, with those yellow counters that were
buried under the manger, and I did not go there myself; the pedlars had
to dig them up for themselves."
"O wife!" cried Fred, "what have you done? they were not counters, but
pure gold, and all our capital; you should not have done so."
"Well, Fred, I did not know; you should have told me that before,"
answered Kate.
Then Kate stood still a little while to consider, and at last she said,
"Listen, Fred, we may be able to get the gold back again. Let us run
after the thieves."
"Very well," said Fred, "we will try; only let us take some bread and
cheese with us, that we may have something to eat on the way."
"All right," she answered. So they set out, and as Fred was a better
walker than Kate, she was soon left behind.
"All the better for me," said she, "for when we turn back I shall have
so much the less distance to go."
And they came to a mountain, where, on both sides of the road, there
were deep cart-ruts. And Kate said to herself,
"How sad to see the poor earth torn, and vexed, and oppressed in this
way! it will never be healed again in all its life."
And with a compassionate heart, she took out her butter and smeared the
cart-ruts right and left, so that they might not be so cut by the
wheels; and as she was stooping to perform this merciful act a cheese
fell out of her pocket and rolled down the mountain. And Kate said,
"I have walked over the ground once, and I am not going to do it again,
but another shall run after that cheese, and bring it back." So saying,
she took another cheese, and rolled it after the first one: and as it
did not seem to be coming back again, she sent a third racing after
them, thinking, "Perhaps they are waiting for company, and are not used
to travelling alone." But when they all three delayed coming, she said,
"I can't think what this means! perhaps it is that the third one has
lost his way, so I will send a fourth that he may call out to him as he
goes by." But it went no better with the fourth than with the third. And
Kate lost all patience and threw down the fifth and sixth, and that was
all. A long while she stood and waited for them to come up, but as still
they did not come, she said,
"Oh, it's like sending good money after bad; there is no getting you
back again. If you suppose I am going to wait for you any longer, you
are very much mistaken: I shall go on my way and you may overtake me;
your legs are younger than mine." Kate then went on until she overtook
Fred, who was standing still and waiting, as he wanted something to eat.
"Now, be quick," he said, "and hand over what you have brought." And she
handed him the dry bread.
"Now for the butter and the cheese," said the man.
"O Fred," said Kate, "I anointed the cart-ruts with the butter, and the
cheeses will soon be here, they are upon the road; one of them ran away,
and I sent the others to fetch it back."
Then said Fred,
"It was very wrong of you, Kate, to waste the butter, and roll the
cheeses down the hill."