DANISH FAIRY AND FOLK TALES
from time to time, and their wishes were at once granted.
The young merchant was to be married to a very beautiful young lady, the daughter of a wise counsellor. When the time came for their wedding the groom wished to give his bride a golden carriage and six milk-white horses; but the old book-keeper shook his head, and said that they could already see the bottom of the chest, and there were no more floors from which it could be again filled. On hearing this the young man called his friends together, and said to them that as he was in need of money he was obliged to ask them help him. Now the time had come when he needed some of the money which they had borrowed from him at different times. None of them was willing to comply, however: had he loaned them money, he had also told them that they might pay him whenever they could spare it. He had lived like a fool; he had been very reckless; he never cut his coat according to his cloth. To give money to the poor was the same as robbing one's friends! Their friendship was at an end, and they would be ashamed even to be seen with him in the streets hereafter.
Disappointed and angry with these men for whom he had done so much, the young merchant went to the home of his betrothed, thinking that she might at least give him some consolation. His friends had already been there, however, and talked to the girl's parents in such a manner that the young man was
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