His master 's compliments , said Hans , and he wanted three years ' tribute . At this they howled at him , and were about to lay hold of him and drag him off ; but when they had got some raps from his walking-stick they let go again , howled still louder than before , and ran in to Old Eric , who was still in bed , after his adventure in the lake . They told him that a messenger had come from the squire at Devilmoss to demand three years ' tribute . He had knocked the gate to pieces and bruised their arms and legs with his iron staff . ` Give him three years ' ! give him ten ! ' shouted Old Eric , ` only do n't let him come near me . ' So all the little demons came dragging so much silver and gold that it was something awful . Hans filled his bundle with gold and silver coins , put it on his neck , and tramped back to his master , who was scared beyond all measure at seeing him again . But Hans was also tired of service now . 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 XXXXX talk ; in that case we could not do better than adopt him as our son , and let him inherit all that we possess . '
At Since So beyond for from in that to with