Peter Christen Asbjørnsen

“ Hold your tongue," said the sheriff's officer. "Don't make a fuss. Here you have ten dollars, keep your peace and take him away. I only gave him a blow that made him swoon."
Well! she was glad enough. "Money brings money," she thought; "with fair words and money, one can go far in a day, and one need never care for food with a purse full of pence." So she took our clerk on her back again, and strode off to the nearest farm, and there she put him athwart the brink of the well. ”

“ NCE on a time there was a clerk in our parish, who was very sharp set after all that was nice and good. All the parish said his brains were in his belly, for though he was very fond of pretty girls and buxom wives, still he liked good meat and drink even better.
"Aye, aye," said our clerk; "one can't live long on love and the south wind." That was his motto, and that was why he kept company most with well-to-do housewives, with those who were new wedded, or with pretty lasses who were sure to marry rich husbands, for there you were sure to find tit-bits both of beauty and food. ”

“ The two who lay among the hay nudged one another, for they thought it was thieves again. Close to the barn was a stepping-stone, and there the new-comer sat down with his load, and began to talk to himself. He had been killing pigs at a farm a few days before, and thought he had been paid too little for his work, too little pay and too little board, and so he had set off and stolen the biggest porker. "He that swaps with a bear always comes worst off," he said; "and so it's best to help one's self to what is right, and a little share is better than a long lawsuit. ”

“ Surely he was "fey" when he set out to see the goody. It is hard to tell how all this was found out at last; but tongues will clack behind a man's back, and hard things are said of a man when he's dead. ”