Then the peasants were vexed that the small peasant should have thus overreached them, wanted to take vengeance on him, and accused him of this treachery before the Mayor. The innocent little peasant was unanimously sentenced to death, and was to be rolled into the water, in a barrel pierced full of holes. He was led forth, and a priest was brought who was to say a mass for his soul. The others were all obliged to retire to a distance, and when the peasant looked at the priest, he recognized the man who had been with the miller’s wife. He said to him, “I set you free from the cupboard, set me free from the barrel.”

At this same moment up came, with a flock of sheep, the very shepherd who as the peasant knew had long been wishing to be Mayor, so he cried with all his might, “No, I will not do it; if the whole world insists on it, I will not do it!”

The shepherd hearing that, came up to him, and asked, “What art thou about? What is it that thou wilt not do?”

The peasant said, “They want to make me Mayor, if I will but put myself in the barrel, but I will not do it.”