Of all the gold and silver he brought with him he let the squire keep one half , and he was glad enough , both for the money and at getting rid of Hans . The other half he took home to his father the smith in Furreby . To him also he said , ` Farewell ; ' he was now tired of living on shore among mortal men , and preferred to go home again to his mother . Since that time no one has ever seen Hans , the Mermaid 's son . Peter Bull From the Danish . There once lived in Denmark a peasant and his wife who owned a very good farm , but had no children . They often lamented to each other that they had no one of their own to inherit all the wealth that they possessed . They continued to prosper , and became rich people , but there was no heir to it all . One year it happened that they owned a pretty little bull-calf , which they called Peter . It was the prettiest little creature they had ever seen -- so beautiful and so wise that it understood everything that was said to it , and so gentle and so full of play that both the man and his wife came to be as fond of it as if it had been their own child . One day the man said to his wife , ' I wonder , now , whether our parish clerk could teach Peter to talk ; in that case we could not do better than adopt him as our son , and let him inherit all that we possess . ' ` Well , I do n't know , ' said his wife , ` our clerk is tremendously learned , and knows much more than his Paternoster , and I could almost believe that he might be able to teach Peter to talk , for Peter has a wonderfully good head too . You might at least ask him about it . ' Off went the man to the clerk , and asked him whether he thought he could teach a bull-calf that they had to speak , for they wished so much to have it as their heir . The clerk was no fool ; he looked round about to see that no one could overhear them , and said , ` Oh , yes , I can easily do that , but you must not speak to anyone about it . It must be done in all secrecy , and the priest must not know of it , otherwise I shall get into trouble , as it is forbidden . It will also cost you something , as some very expensive books are required . ' That did not matter at all , the man said ; they would not care so very much what it cost . The clerk could have a hundred dollars to begin with to buy the books . He also promised to tell no one about it , and to bring the calf round in the evening .
He gave the clerk the hundred dollars on the spot , and in the evening took the calf round to him , and the clerk promised to do his best XXXXX it .
From Off about at for in into of than with