One day, however, he had a strange
surprise. He came upon a big fir tree
with strange open holes on the trunk. It
looked somehow different from the other
trees, and just as he was about to chop
it down, the alarmed face of an lepre-
chaun popped out of a hole.
"What's all this banging?" he asked.
"You're not thinking of cutting down this
tree, are you? It's my home. I live
here!" The woodcutter dropped his axe in
astonlshment.

"Well, I . . ." he stammered.

"With all the other trees there are in
this forest, you have to pick this one.
Lucky I was in, or I would have found
myself homeless."

Taken aback at these words, the
woodcutter qulckly recovered, for after
all the leprechaun was quite tiny, while
he himself was a big hefty chap, and
he boldly replied: "I'll cut down any
tree I like, so . . ."

"All right! All right!" broke in the
leprechaun. "Shall we put it this way:
if you don't cut down this tree, I'll
grant you three wishes. Agreed?"

The woodcutter scratched his head.
"Three wishes, you say? Yes, I agree."
And he began to hack at another tree.
As he worked and sweated at his task,
the woodcutter kept thinking about
the magic wishes.
"I'll see what my wife thinks..."

The woodcutter's wife was busily
cleaning a pot outside the house when
her husband arrived. Grabbing her round
the waist, he twirled her in delight.

"Hooray! Hooray! Our luck is in!"
The woman could not understand why
her husband was so pleased with himself
and she shrugged herself free. Later,
however, over a glass of fine wine at
the table, the woodcutter told his wife
of his meeting with the leprechaun, and
she too began to picture the wonderful
things that the his three wishes might
give them.

The woodcutter's wife took a first sip
of wine from her husband's glass.

"Nice," she said, smacking her lips.
"I wish I had a string of sausages to
go with it, though..."

Instantly she bit her tongue, but too
late. Out of the air appeared the
sausages while the woodcutter stuttered
with rage.

". . . what have you done! Sausages . . .
What a stupid waste of a wish! You
foolish woman. I wish they would stick
up your nose!"

No sooner said than done. For the
sausages leapt up and stuck fast to
the end of the woman's nose.

This time, the woodcutter's wife flew
into a rage.

"You idiot, what have you done? With
all the things we could have wished
for . . ."

The mortified woodcutter, who had just
repeated his wife's own mistake,
exclaimed: "I'd chop . . ." Luckily he
stopped himself in time, realizing with
horror that he'd been on the point of
having his tongue chopped off.

As his wife complained and blamed him,
the poor man burst out laughing.

"If only you knew how funny you look
with those sausages on the end of your
nose!" Now that really upset the
woodcutter's wife. She hadn't thought
of her looks. She tried to tug away
the sausages but they would not budge.
She pulled again and again, but in vain.
The sausages were firmly attached to her
nose.

Terrified, she exclaimed: "They'll be
there for the rest of my life!"

Feeling sorry for his wife and
wondering how he could ever put up with
a woman with such an awkward nose, the
woodcutter said: "I'll try." Grasping
the string of sausages, he tugged with
all his might. But he simply pulled his
wife over on top of him.
The pair sat on the floor, gazing sadly
at each other.

"What shall we do now?" they said,
each thinking the same thought.

"There's only one thing we can do . . ."
ventured the woodcutter's wife timidly.

"Yes, I'm afraid so . . ." her husband
sighed, remembering their dreams of
riches, and he bravely wished the third
and last wish "I wish the sausages
would leave my wife's nose."
And they did.

Instantly, husband and wife hugged each
other tearfully, saying "Maybe we'll
be poor, but we'll be happy again!"