What the Old Man Does Is Always Right
(1861)
I will tell you a story that was told me when I was a little boy. Every time
I thought of this story, it seemed to me more and more charming; for it is
with stories as it is with many people-they become better as they grow
older.
I have no doubt that you have been in the country, and seen a very old
farmhouse, with a thatched roof, and mosses and small plants growing wild
upon it. There is a stork’s nest on the ridge of the gable, for we cannot do
without the stork. The walls of the house are sloping, and the windows are
low, and only one of the latter is made to open. The baking-oven sticks out
of the wall like a great knob. An elder-tree hangs over the palings; and
beneath its branches, at the foot of the paling, is a pool of water, in which a
few ducks are disporting themselves. There is a yard-dog too, who barks at
all corners. Just such a farmhouse as this stood in a country lane; and in it
dwelt an old couple, a peasant and his wife. Small as their possessions were,
they had one article they could not do without, and that was a horse, which
contrived to live upon the grass which it found by the side of the high road.
The old peasant rode into the town upon this horse, and his neighbors often
borrowed it of him, and paid for the loan of it by rendering some service to
the old couple. After a time they thought it would be as well to sell the
horse, or exchange it for something which might be more useful to them.
But what might this something be?
“You’ll know best, old man,” said the wife. “It is fair-day to-day; so ride
into town, and get rid of the horse for money, or make a good exchange;
whichever you do will be right to me, so ride to the fair.”
And she fastened his neckerchief for him; for she could do that better
than he could, and she could also tie it very prettily in a double bow. She
also smoothed his hat round and round with the palm of her hand, and gave
