Once on a time there was an old widow who had one son; and as she was
poorly and weak, her son had to go up into the safe to fetch meal for
cooking; but when he got outside the safe, and was just going down the
steps, there came the _North Wind_ puffing and blowing, caught up the
meal, and so away with it through the air. Then the _Lad_ went back
into the safe for more; but when he came out again on the steps, if
the _North Wind_ didn't come again and carry off the meal with a puff:
and, more than that, he did so the third time. At this the _Lad_ got
very angry; and as he thought it hard that the _North Wind_ should
behave so, he thought he'd just look him up, and ask him to give up
his meal.
So off he went, but the way was long, and he walked and walked; but at
last he came to the _North Wind's_ house.
"Good day!" said the _Lad_, "and thank you for coming to see us
yesterday."
"GOOD DAY!" answered the _North Wind_, for his voice was loud and
gruff, "AND THANKS FOR COMING TO SEE ME. WHAT DO YOU WANT?"
"Oh!" answered the _Lad_, "I only wished to ask you to be so good as
to let me have back that meal you took from me on the safe steps, for
we haven't much to live on; and if you're to go on snapping up the
morsel we have, there'll be nothing for it but to starve."
"I haven't got your meal," said the _North Wind_; "but if you are in
such need, I'll give you a cloth which will get you everything you
want, if you only say, 'Cloth, spread yourself, and serve up all kinds
of good dishes!'"
With this the _Lad_ was well content. But, as the way was so long he
couldn't get home in one day, so he turned into an inn on the way; and
when they were going to sit down to supper he laid the cloth on a
table which stood in the corner, and said:
"Cloth, spread yourself, and serve up all kinds of good dishes."
He had scarce said so before the cloth did as it was bid; and all who
stood by thought it a fine thing, but most of all the landlady. So,
when all were fast asleep at dead of night, she took the _Lad's_
cloth, and put another in its stead, just like the one he had got from
the _North Wind_, but which couldn't so much as serve up a bit of dry
bread.
So, when the _Lad_ woke, he took his cloth and went off with it, and
that day he got home to his mother.
"Now," said he, "I've been to the _North Wind's_ house, and a good
fellow he is, for he gave me this cloth, and when I only say to it,
'Cloth, spread yourself, and serve up all kinds of good dishes,' I get
any sort of food I please."
"All very true, I daresay," said his mother; "but seeing is believing,
and I shan't believe it till I see it."
So the _Lad_ made haste, drew out a table, laid the cloth on it, and
said:
"Cloth, spread yourself, and serve up all kinds of good dishes."
But never a bit of dry bread did the cloth serve up.
"Well," said the _Lad_ "there's no help for it but to go to the _North
Wind_ again;" and away he went.
So he came to where the _North Wind_ lived late in the afternoon.
"Good evening!" said the _Lad_.
"Good evening!" said the _North Wind_.
"I want my rights for that meal of ours which you took," said the
_Lad_; "for, as for that cloth I got, it isn't worth a penny."
"I've got no meal," said the _North Wind_; "but yonder you have a ram
which coins nothing but golden ducats as soon as you say to it: 'Ram,
ram! make money!'"
So the _Lad_ thought this a fine thing; but as it was too far to get
home that day, he turned in for the night to the same inn where he had
slept before.
Before he called for anything, he tried the truth of what the _North
Wind_ had said of the ram, and found it all right; but, when the
landlord saw that, he thought it was a famous ram, and, when the _Lad_
had fallen asleep, he took another which couldn't coin gold ducats,
and changed the two.
Next morning off went the _Lad_; and when he got home to his mother,
he said:
"After all, the _North Wind_ is a jolly fellow; for now he has given
me a ram which can coin golden ducats if I only say: 'Ram, ram! make
money!'"
"All very true, I daresay," said his mother; "but I shan't believe any
such stuff until I see the ducats made."
"Ram, ram! make money!" said the _Lad_; but if the ram made anything,
it wasn't money.
So the _Lad_ went back again to the _North Wind_, and blew him up, and
said the ram was worth nothing, and he must have his rights for the
meal.
"Well!" said the _North Wind_; "I've nothing else to give you but that
old stick in the corner yonder; but its a stick of that kind that if
you say: 'Stick, stick! lay on!' it lays on till you say: 'Stick,
stick! now stop!'"
So, as the way was long, the _Lad_ turned in this night too to the
landlord; but as he could pretty well guess how things stood as to the
cloth and the ram, he lay down at once on the bench and began to
snore, as if he were asleep.
Now the landlord, who easily saw that the stick must be worth
something, hunted up one which was like it, and when he heard the lad
snore, was going to change the two; but, just as the landlord was
about to take it, the _Lad_ bawled out:
"Stick, stick! lay on!"
So the stick began to beat the landlord, till he jumped over chairs,
and tables, and benches, and yelled and roared:
"Oh my! oh my! bid the stick be still, else it will beat me to death,
and you shall have back both your cloth and your ram."
When the _Lad_ thought the landlord had got enough, he said:
"Stick, stick! now stop!"
Then he took the cloth and put it into his pocket, and went home with
his stick in his hand, leading the ram by a cord round its horns; and
so he got his rights for the meal he had lost.