The third brother had bound himself apprentice to a turner, and, as turning is a very ingenious handicraft, it took him a long time to learn it.  His brother told him in a letter how badly things had gone with them and how on the last night of their travels the landlord deprived them of their treasures.  When the young turner had learned his trade and was ready to travel his master, to reward him for his good conduct, gave him a sack and told him that there was a cudgel inside it.  »I can hang up the sack and it may be very useful to me,«  said the young man.  »But what is the good of the cudgel?«—»I will tell you,«  answered the master.  »If any one does you any harm and you say, ›Cudgel, out of the sack!‹ the cudgel will jump out upon them, and will belabor them so soundly that they shall not be able to move or to leave the place for a week, and it will not stop until you say, ›Cudgel, into the sack!‹«  The apprentice thanked him and took up the sack and set off for the inn where his two brothers had been taken in.

When he reached there in the evening he laid his knapsack on the table and began to describe all the wonderful things he had seen in the world.  »Yes,«  said he,  »one may find some really good things in the word, as a self-spreading table or a gold-supplying ass, but they are nothing in comparison with the treasure that I carry with me in that sack!«  Then the landlord opened his ears.  »What in the world can it be?«  thought he.  »Very likely the sack is full of precious stones.«

 

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