The cowherd said, “All right, and took it in his arms and carried it to the pasture, and set it among the grass.” The little calf always remained standing like one which was eating, and the cowherd said, “It will soon run alone, just look how it eats already!” At night when he was going to drive the herd home again, he said to the calf, “If thou canst stand there and eat thy fill, thou canst also go on thy four legs; I don’t care to drag thee home again in my arms.” But the little peasant stood at his door, and waited for his little calf, and when the cowherd drove the cows through the village, and the calf was missing, he inquired where it was. The cowherd 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 cowherd said, “It must have run away.”