A farmer had a great many sausages, hams, and sides of bacon hanging in the smoker. And yet his wife had to buy meat constantly.

"But husband, why won't you let me use that sausage?"

"Well, wife, because it's for the long spring."

The wife said, "For the Long Spring? Who on earth may that be?"

After a while, she asked again, but the answer was and remained, "For the long spring."

The wife did not understand, but a certain person who heard about it one day had a better understanding. He was tall and willing to try to impersonate this Long Spring.

He entered the house when the farmer was not home and said, "Well, woman, here I am to collect the sausage and the bacon."

"But who are you?"

"Me? I'm the Long Spring!"

"Well, well, are you the Long Spring ! Well, if you must, there you have it!"

And the man took to his heels with those lovely sausages.

The farmer came home, missed the sausages of course, and heard from his wife what had happened. The farmer immediately saddled his best horse and rode after this Long Spring, in the direction his wife had shown him. When he arrived at the forest, the Long Spring had already seen him coming.

Long Spring threw aside his pack of meat and walked towards the farmer.

He asked, "What's the hurry, man?"

"Haven't you seen anybody around here with a heavy pack?"

"Yes, I have. He has just walked into the forest."

"But how can I enter the forest with my horse?"

"Well, I can mind your horse just for now."

In a jiffy, the farmer had disappeared into the forest, and in just as little time, the Long Spring sat on the horse with his sausages, and off he went.