Once upon a time there was a man whose name was Gudbrand.
He had a farm which lay far, far away upon a hillside,
and so they called him Gudbrand-on-the-Hillside.
Now, you must know this man and his good wife lived
so happily together, and understood one another so
well, that all the husband did the wife thought so
well done there was nothing like it in the world, and
she was always pleased at whatever he turned his hand
to. The farm was their own land, and they had
a hundred dollars lying at the bottom of their chest
and two cows tethered up in a stall in their farmyard.
So one day his wife said to Gudbrand, “Do you
know, dear, I think we ought to take one of our cows
into town and sell it; that’s what I think;
for then we shall have some money in hand, and such
well-to-do people as we ought to have ready money
as other folks have. As for the hundred dollars
in the chest yonder, we can’t make a hole in
our savings, and I’m sure I don’t know
what we want with more than one cow.
“Besides, we shall gain a little in another
way, for then I shall get off with only looking after
one cow, instead of having, as now, to feed and litter
and water two.”
Well, Gudbrand thought his wife talked right good
sense, so he set off at once with the cow on the way
to town to sell her; but when he got to the town,
there was no one who would buy his cow.
“Well, well, never mind,” said Gudbrand,
“at the worst, I can only go back home with
my cow. I’ve both stable and tether for
her, and the road is no farther out than in.”
And with that he began to toddle home with his cow.
But when he had gone a bit of the way, a man met him
who had a horse to sell. Gudbrand thought ’twas
better to have a horse than a cow, so he traded with
the man. A little farther on he met a man walking
along and driving a fat pig before him, and he thought
it better to have a fat pig than a horse, so he traded
with the man. After that he went a little farther,
and a man met him with a goat, so he thought it better
to have a goat than a pig, and he traded with the
man who owned the goat. Then he went on a good
bit till he met a man who had a sheep, and he traded
with him too, for he thought it always better to have
a sheep than a goat. After a while he met a man
with a goose, and he traded away the sheep for the
goose; and when he had walked a long, long time, he
met a man with a cock, and he traded with him, for
he thought in this wise, “Tis surely better
to have a cock than a goose.”
Then he went on till the day was far spent, and he
began to get very hungry, so he sold the cock for
a shilling, and bought food with the money, for, thought
Gudbrand-on-the-Hillside, “Tis always better
to save one’s life than to have a cock.”
After that he went on homeward till he reached his
nearest neighbor’s house, where he turned in.
