Grimms' Fairy Tales

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it among the grass. The little calf always remained standing like one
which was eating, and the cow-herd said: 'It will soon run by itself,
just look how it eats already!' At night when he was going to drive the
herd home again, he said to the calf: 'If you can stand there and eat
your fill, you can also go on your four legs; I don't care to drag you
home again in my arms.' But the little peasant stood at his door, and
waited for his little calf, and when the cow-herd drove the cows through
the village, and the calf was missing, he inquired where it was. The
cow-herd answered: 'It is still standing out there eating. It would not
stop and come with us.' But the little peasant said: 'Oh, but I must
have my beast back again.' Then they went back to the meadow together,
but someone had stolen the calf, and it was gone. The cow-herd said: 'It
must have run away.' The peasant, however, said: 'Don't tell me
that,' and led the cow-herd before the mayor, who for his carelessness
condemned him to give the peasant a cow for the calf which had run away.

And now the little peasant and his wife had the cow for which they had