grown foolish.
Everybody pitied his wife and children, for they imagined the numerous
horses that he kept in his stable, and the preposterous mode of
agriculture he pursued, with his unnecessary and superfluous ploughing,
must soon leave him without house or land.

Their anticipations, however, were not fulfilled. True it is, the poor
man never enjoyed a happy or contented hour since he began to plough the
ducats up out of the ground. The old saying held good in his case, that
he who gives himself up to the pursuit of gold is half-way in the claws
of the evil one. Flesh and blood cannot bear perpetual labour, and John
Wilde did not long hold out against his running through the furrows day
and night. He got through the first spring; but one day in the second he
dropped down at the tail of the plough like an exhausted November fly.
Out of the pure thirst for gold he was wasted away and dried up to
nothing, whereas he had been a very strong and hearty man the day the
shoe of the little underground man fell into his hands.

His wife, however, found he had left a great treasure--two great
nailed-up chests full of good new ducats; and his sons purchased large
estates for themselves, and became lords and noblemen.

But what good did all that to poor John Wilde?

HOW LOKI WAGERED HIS HEAD.

Loki, the son of Laufey, out of mischief cut off all the hair of Sif.
When Thor discovered this he seized Loki, and would have broken every
bone in his body, only he swore that he would get the black dwarfs to
make hair of gold for Sif, which should grow like any other hair.

Loki then went to the dwarfs that are called the sons of Ivallda. They
first made the hair, which, as soon as it was put on the head, grew like
natural hair. Then they made the ship Skidbladnir, which always had the
wind with it wherever it would sail. Lastly, they made the spear Gugner,
which always hit its mark in battle.

Then Loki wagered his head against the dwarf Brock, that his brother,
Eitri, could not forge three such valuable things as these. They went to
the forge. Eitri set the bellows to the fire, and bid his brother,
Brock, blow. While he was blowing there came a fly that settled on his
hand and bit him, but he blew without stopping till the smith took the
work out of the fire, and it was a boar, and its bristles were of gold.

Eitri then put gold into the fire, and bid his brother not stop blowing
till he came back. He went away, and the