41. The Two Irishmen

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41. THE TWO IRISHMEN

(EUROPEAN)

Two Irishmen bought a horse. One said to the other, "You ride him," and the other said, "You ride him." When the two were leading him about, one finally agreed to ride him, but when the horse moved he fell off. Then the two walked along leading him. Then one said to the other, "You ride him," and the other replied, "You ride him." While they were going along the other one mounted in his turn, but when the horse started up he fell off. "It is dangerous," they said. They got scared of him and merely led him. On the way they came to where two people were harvesting pumpkins. "What are those?" they asked. "The long ones are horse eggs, and the round ones mule eggs," they answered. Then they thought, "If we get one and hatch it the animal will grow up gentle," so they exchanged their horse for a round pumpkin, took the pumpkin, and started on.

When they were running down a hill some time later, the one who held the pumpkin stubbed his toe and fell down and the pumpkin rolled away, struck a tree, and burst. A rabbit which was sitting in the neighborhood ran off and they thought a little mule had hatched out. "Little mule, little mule," they called to it and pursued it, but soon lost it.