So Hans had no objections to make . Long before the sun was up next morning , all the twelve men were on foot . They took all the best horses and carts , and drove off to the forest . Hans , however , lay and slept on , and the squire said , ` Just let him lie . ' At last , Hans thought it was time to have his breakfast , so he got up and put on his clothes . He took plenty of time to his breakfast , and then went out to get his horse and cart ready . The others had taken everything that was any good , so that he had a difficulty in scraping together four wheels of different sizes and fixing them to an old cart , and he could find no other horses than a pair of old hacks . He did not know where it lay , but he followed the track of the other carts , and in that way came to it all right . On coming to the gate leading into the forest , he was unfortunate enough to break it in pieces , so he took a huge stone that was lying on the field , seven ells long , and seven ells broad , and set this in the gap , then he went on and joined the others . These laughed at him heartily , for they had laboured as hard as they could since daybreak , and had helped each other to fell trees and put them on the carts , so that all of these were now loaded except one . Hans got hold of a woodman 's axe and proceeded to fell a tree , but he destroyed the edge and broke the shaft at the first blow . He therefore laid down the axe , put his arms round the tree , and pulled it up by the roots . This he threw upon his cart , and then another and another , and thus he went on while all the others forgot their work , and stood with open mouths , gazing at this strange woodcraft . All at once they began to hurry ; the last cart was loaded , and they whipped up their horses , so as to be the first to arrive home . When Hans had finished his work , he again put his old hacks into the cart , but they could not move it from the spot . He was annoyed at this , and took them out again , twisted a rope round the cart , and all the trees , lifted the whole affair on his back , and set off home , leading the horses behind him by the rein . When he reached the gate , he found the whole row of carts standing there , unable to get any further for the stone which lay in the gap . ` What ! ' said Hans , ` can twelve men not move that stone ? ' With that he lifted it and threw it out of hte way , and went on with his burden on his back , and the horses behind him , and arrived at the farm long before any of the others .
The squire was walking about there , looking and looking , XXXXX he was very curious to know what had happened .
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