It is real gold, you know; but, all the same, I can scarcely
hold up my head, it weighs so terribly on my shoulders."
"I'll tell you what," said the horseman: "we'll just exchange. I'll
give you my horse and you give me your lump of gold."
"With all my heart!" said Hans. "But I warn you, you'll have a job to
carry it."
The horseman dismounted, took the gold, and helped Hans up; and,
giving the bridle into his hand, said: "If you want him to go at full
speed, you must cluck with your tongue and cry 'C'ck! c'ck!'"
Hans was heartily delighted, as he sat on his horse and rode gaily
along.
After a while he fancied he would like to go faster, so he began to
cluck with his tongue and cry "C'ck! c'ck!" The horse broke into a
smart trot, and before Hans was aware he was thrown off--splash!--into
a ditch which divided the highway from the fields, and there he lay.
The horse, too, would have run away had it not been stopped by a
peasant, as he came along the road, driving his cow before him.
Hans pulled himself together and got upon his legs again. He felt very
downcast, and said to the peasant: "It's a poor joke, that riding,
especially when one lights upon such a brute as this, which kicks
and throws one off so that one comes near to breaking one's neck.
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