` Ah , well ! you may hang there for me ; I ca n't breathe life into you again . ' So on he went with his ox . Then the youth sprang down from the tree , ran by a short cut and got before him , and once more hung himself up on a tree in the road before the man . ` How I should like to know if you really were so sick at heart that you hanged yourself there , or if it is only a hobgoblin that 's before me ! ' said the man . ` Ah , well ! you may hang there for me , whether you are a hobgoblin or not , ' and on he went with his ox . Once more the youth did just as he had done twice already ; jumped down from the tree , ran by a short cut through the wood , and again hanged himself in the very middle of the road before him . But when the man once more saw this he said to himself , ` What a bad business this is ! Can they all have been so heavy-hearted that they have all three hanged themselves ? No , I ca n't believe that it is anything but witchcraft ! But I will know the truth , ' he said ; ` if the two others are still hanging there it is true but if they are not it 's nothing else but witchcraft . ' So he tied up his ox and ran back to see if they really were hanging there . While he was going , and looking up at every tree as he went , the youth leapt down and took his ox and went off with it . Any one may easily imagine what a fury the man fell into when he came back and saw that his ox was gone . He wept and he raged , but at last he took comfort and told himself that the best thing to do was to go home and take the third ox , without letting his wife know anything about it , and then try to sell it so well that he got a good sum of money for it . So he went home and took the third ox , and drove it off without his wife knowing anything about it . But the robbers knew all about it , and they told the youth that if he could steal this as he had stolen the two others , he should be master of the whole troop . So the youth set out and went to the wood , and when the man was coming along with the ox he began to bellow loudly , just like a great ox somewhere inside the wood .
When the man heard XXXXX he was right glad , for he fancied he recognised the voice of his big bullock , and thought that now he should find both of them again .
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