` Good greeting , beardless one ! ' cried he . ` Good greeting , sonny , ' replied the man . ` Could I grind something here ? ' ` Yes , certainly ! I will finish what I am doing and then you can grind as long as you like . ' But suddenly the boy remembered what his father had told him , and bade farewell to the man , and went further down the river , till he came to another mill , not knowing that as soon as his back was turned the beardless man had picked up a bag of corn and run hastily to the same mill before him . When the boy reached the second mill , and saw a second beardless man sitting there , he did not stop , and walked on till he came to a third mill . But this time also the beardless man had been too clever for him , and had arrived first by another road . When it happened a fourth time the boy grew cross , and said to himself , ` It is no good going on ; there seems to be a beardless man in every mill ' ; and he took his sack from his back , and made up his mind to grind his corn where he was . The beardless man finished grinding his own corn , and when he had done he said to the boy , who was beginning to grind his , ` Suppose , sonny , we make a cake of what you have there . ' Now the boy had been rather uneasy when he recollected his father 's words , but he thought to himself , ` What is done can not be undone , ' and answered , ` Very well , so let it be . ' Then the beardless one got up , threw the flour into the tub , and made a hole in the middle , telling the boy to fetch some water from the river in his two hands , to mix the cake . When the cake was ready for baking they put it on the fire , and covered it with hot ashes , till it was cooked through . Then they leaned it up against the wall , for it was too big to go into a cupboard , and the beardless one said to the boy : ` Look here , sonny : if we share this cake we shall neither of us have enough . Let us see who can tell the biggest lie , and the one who lies the best shall have the whole cake . ' The boy , not knowing what else to do , answered , ` All right ; you begin . ' So the beardless one began to lie with all his might , and when he was tired of inventing new lies the boy said to him , ` My good fellow , if THAT is all you can do it is not much ! Listen to me , and I will tell you a true story . ` In my youth , when I was an old man , we had a quantity of beehives .
Every morning when I XXXXX up I counted them over , and it was quite easy to number the bees , but I never could reckon the hives properly .
bade covered cried go got put replied turned walked went