"Do but be quiet, my child. I should be a fool to put myself into a
passion with such a little brat. Never fear, I shall soon make you tame
enough."
So saying, he ran home with him, and clapped him into a black sooty iron
pot, and put the iron lid upon it, and laid on the top of the lid a
great heavy stone. Then he set the pot in a dark, cold room, and as he
was going out, said to him--
"Stay there, now, and freeze till you are black! I'll engage that at
last you will answer me civilly."
Twice a week the farmer went regularly into the room and asked his
little black captive if he would answer him now, but the little one
still obstinately persisted in his silence. The farmer had, without
success, pursued this course for six weeks, at the end of which time his
prisoner at last gave up. One day, as the farmer was opening the room
door, of his own accord he asked him to come and take him out of his
dirty, gloomy dungeon, promising that he would now cheerfully do all
that was wanted of him.
The farmer first ordered him to tell him his history. The black one
replied--
"My dear friend, you know it just as well as I do, or else you never
would have had me here. You see I happened by chance to come too near
the cross, a thing we little people may not do, and then I was held
fast, and obliged instantly to let my body become visible. In order that
people might not recognise me, I turned myself into an insect. But you
found me out. When we get fastened to holy or consecrated things we can
never get away from them unless a man takes us off. That, however, does
not happen without plague and annoyance to us; though, indeed, to say
the truth, the staying fastened there is not over pleasant. So I
struggled against you too, for we have a natural aversion to let
ourselves be taken in a man's hand."
"Ho, ho! is that the tune with you?" cried the farmer. "You have a
natural aversion have you? Believe me, my sooty friend, I have just the
same for you, and so you shall be away without a moment's delay, and we
will lose no time in making our bargain with each other. But you must
first make me some present."
"What you will you have only to ask," said the little one, "silver and
gold, and precious stones, and costly furniture--all shall be thine in
less than an instant."
"Silver and gold, and precious stones, and all such glittering fine
things, will I none," said the farmer. "They have turned the heart and
broken the neck of many a one before now, and few are they whose lives
they make happy. I know that you are handy smiths, and have many a
strange thing with you that other smiths know nothing about. So, come
now, swear to me that you will make me an iron plough, such that the
smallest foal may be able to draw it without being tired, and then run
off with you as fast as your legs will carry you." So the black swore,
and then the farmer cried out--
"Now, in the name of God. There you are at liberty," and the little one
vanished like lightning.
Next morning, before the sun was up, there stood in the farmer's yard a
new iron plough, and he yoked his dog, Water, to it; and though it was
of the size of an ordinary plough, Water drew it with ease through the
heaviest clayland, and it tore up prodigious furrows. The farmer used
this plough for many years, and the smallest foal or the leanest little
horse could draw it through the ground, to the amazement of every one
who beheld it, without turning a single hair.
This plough made a rich man of the farmer, for it cost him no
horse-flesh, and he led a cheerful and contented life by means of it.
Hereby we may see that moderation holds out the longest, and that it is
not good to covet too much.