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Her father and the gentleman were wondering upstairs where the girl disappeared, and her mother went down to look for her. She saw that the girl was sitting and crying, and the beer was running all over the floor.

“What’s the matter?” said her mother.

“Oh, mother!” says she. “Look at that horrid mallet! If we marry, and we have a son, and he grows up and comes down into the cellar to bring the beer, the mallet will fall on his head and kill him. How awful! How awful!”

“Dear, dear! That’s really terrible!” said the mother, and she sat down and started to cry too. Then the father began to wonder that they didn’t come back, and he went down into the cellar. They were sitting and crying, and the beer was running all over the floor.

“What’s the matter?” says he.

“Oh,” says the mother, “look at that horrid mallet. Just think, if our daughter and her sweetheart marry, and they have a son, and he grows up and comes down into the cellar to bring the beer, the mallet will fall on his head and kill him. How awful! How awful!”

“Dear, dear, dear! It is so dreadful!” said the father, and he sat down, and started to cry too.

Now the gentleman went down into the cellar too, to see what they were doing there. They three were sitting and crying side by side, and the beer was running all over the floor. And he ran and turned the tap.

Then he said, “What are you three doing? Why are you sitting and crying?”

“Oh!” says the father, “look at that horrid mallet! Just think: if you and our daughter marry, and you have a son, and he grows up and comes down into the cellar to bring the beer, the mallet will fall on his head and kill him. How awful! How awful!” And then they all started to cry worse than before.

But the gentleman smiled, and took the mallet, and then he said, “I travelled many miles, and I never met such big sillies as you three before. Now I shall start my travels again, and when I can find three bigger sillies than you three, then I’ll come back and marry your daughter.” So he wished them good-bye, and went away. The three sillies were all crying because the girl lost her sweetheart.

Well, he travelled a long way, and at last he came to a woman’s cottage. It had some grass on the roof. And the woman was trying to get her cow to go up a ladder to the grass. So the gentleman asked the woman what she was doing. “Look at all that beautiful grass,” she said, “I’m going to feed my cow with it.” “Oh, you poor silly!” said the gentleman, “you must cut the grass and throw it down to the cow!”

Well, that was one big silly.

Then the gentleman came to an inn. In the morning he saw a strange man. He hang his trousers on the knobs of the chest of drawers and ran across the room and tried to jump into them. At last he stopped and wiped his face with his handkerchief. “Trousers,” he says, “are the most terrible kind of clothes in the world. Who could invent such things?! I usually spend an hour to get into my trousers every morning!” So the gentleman laughed, and showed him how to put the trousers on.