hemselves
with joy. Michel divided the money, putting aside one-fourth for their
master, and distributing the other three among the men. And now they
went into the public houses with sailors and other rabble, squandering
their money in drinking and gambling; while the honest fellow who had
dissuaded them was sold by Michel to a slave-trader and has never been
heard of since. From that time forward Holland was a paradise to the
fellows from the Schwarzwald, and the Dutchman Michel their king. For
a long time the timber merchants were ignorant of this proceeding, and
before people were aware, money, swearing, corrupt manners, drunkenness
and gambling were imported from Holland.

"When the thing became known, Michel was nowhere to be found, but he
was not dead; for a hundred years he has been haunting the forest, and
is said to have helped many in becoming rich at the cost of their souls
of course: more I will not say. This much, however, is certain, that
to the present day, in boisterous nights, he finds out the finest pines
in the Tannenbuehl where people are not to fell wood; and my father has
seen him break off one of four feet diameter, as he would break a reed.
Such trees he gives to those who turn from the right path and go to
him; at midnight they bring their rafts to the water and he goes to
Holland with them. If I were lord and king in Holland, I would have
him shot with grape, for all the ships that have but a single beam of
Michel's, must go to the bottom. Hence it is that we hear of so many
shipwrecks; and if it were not so, how could a beautiful, strong ship
as large as a church, be sunk. But as often as Michel fells a pine in
the forest during a boisterous night, one of his old ones starts from
its joints, the water enters, and the ship is lost, men and all. So
far goes the legend of the Dutchman Michel; and true it is that all the
evil in the Schwarzwald dates from him. Oh! he can make one rich,"
added the old man mysteriously; "but I would have nothing from him; I
would at no price be in the shoes of fat Hesekiel and the long
Schlurker. The king of the ballroom, too, is said to have made himself
over to him."

The storm had abated during the narrative of the old man; the girls
timidly lighted their lamps and retired, while the men put a sackful of
leaves upon the bench by the stove as a pillow for Peter Munk, and
wished him good night.

Never in his life had Peter such heavy dreams as during