forgive you," said the glass-mannikin, "because you feel
true repentance, and all shall be forgotten. Go home now, to your
father's hut, and be a charcoal-burner as before; if you are active and
honest, you will do credit to your trade, and your neighbours will love
and esteem you more than if you possessed ten tons of gold." Thus
saying, the glass-mannikin left them. The three praised and blessed
him, and went home.

The splendid house of wealthy Peter stood no longer; it was struck by
lightning, and burnt to the ground, with all its treasures. But they
were not far from his father's hut, and thither they went, without
caring much for their great loss. But what was their surprise when
they reached the hut; it was changed into a handsome farm-house, and
all in it was simple, but good and cleanly.

"This is the glass-mannikin's doing," cried Peter.

"How beautiful!" said Frau Elizabeth; "and here I feel more at home
than in the larger house, with many servants."

Henceforth Peter Munk became an industrious and honest man. He was
content with what he had, carried on his trade cheerfully, and thus it
was that he became wealthy by his own energy, and respected and beloved
in the whole forest. He no longer quarrelled with his wife, but
honoured his mother, and relieved the poor who came to his door. When,
after twelvemonths, Fran Elizabeth presented him with a beautiful
little boy, Peter went to the Tannenbuehl, and repeated the verse as
before. But the glass-mannikin did not show himself.

"Mr. Schatzhauser," he cried loudly, "only listen to me. I wish
nothing but to ask you to stand godfather to my little son." But he
received no answer, and only a short gust of wind rushed through the
pines, and cast a few cones on the grass.

"Then I will take these as a remembrance, as you will not show
yourself," cried Peter, and he put them in his pocket, and returned
home. But when he took off his jacket, and his mother turned out the
pockets before putting it away, four large rolls of money fell out; and
when they opened them, they found them all good and new Baden dollars,
and not one counterfeit, and these were the intended godfather's gift
for little Peter, from the little man in the Tannenbuehl. Thus they
lived on, quietly and cheerfully; and many a time Peter Munk, when
gray-headed, would say, "It is indeed better to be content with little,
than to have wealth and a cold heart."

C. A. F.

[1] The Bl