With that the little man took leave . Then Dullhead fell to at once to hew down the tree , and when it fell he found amongst its roots a goose , whose feathers were all of pure gold . He lifted it out , carried it off , and took it with him to an inn where he meant to spend the night . Now the landlord of the inn had three daughters , and when they saw the goose they were filled with curiosity as to what this wonderful bird could be , and each longed to have one of its golden feathers . The eldest thought to herself : ` No doubt I shall soon find a good opportunity to pluck out one of its feathers , ' and the first time Dullhead happened to leave the room she caught hold of the goose by its wing . But , lo and behold ! her fingers seemed to stick fast to the goose , and she could not take her hand away . Soon after the second daughter came in , and thought to pluck a golden feather for herself too ; but hardly had she touched her sister than she stuck fast as well . At last the third sister came with the same intentions , but the other two cried out : ` Keep off ! for Heaven 's sake , keep off ! ' The younger sister could not imagine why she was to keep off , and thought to herself : ` If they are both there , why should not I be there too ? ' So she sprang to them ; but no sooner had she touched one of them than she stuck fast to her . So they all three had to spend the night with the goose . Next morning Dullhead tucked the goose under his arm and went off , without in the least troubling himself about the three girls who were hanging on to it . They just had to run after him right or left as best they could . In the middle of a field they met the parson , and when he saw this procession he cried : ` For shame , you bold girls ! What do you mean by running after a young fellow through the fields like that ? Do you call that proper behaviour ? ' And with that he caught the youngest girl by the hand to try and draw her away . But directly he touched her he hung on himself , and had to run along with the rest of them .
Not long XXXXX the clerk came that way , and was much surprised to see the parson following the footsteps of three girls .
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