u to give him a million? I heard a voice
saying to me, 'If you do not obey the messenger of the Infernal powers,
you will both die this very night.' It was on account of that, that I
called him up stairs. Ah! if we had been doing business with a man, I
would have told you to contest it in law to our last cent."

"As you please! So you're still making sport of my visions?"

"Forgive me, Claus dear; I was a fool!"

"And I've concluded I was, too."

"Poor innocent! Perhaps you too thought this was Colonel Fougas?"

"Certainly!"

"As if it were possible to resuscitate a man! It is a demon, I tell you,
who assumed the shape of the Colonel, to rob us of our money!"

"What can demons do with money?"

"Build cathedrals, to be sure!"

"But how is the devil to be recognized when he is disguised?"

"First by his cloven-foot--but this one has boots on; next by his
clipped ear."

"Bah! And why?"

"Because the devil's ears are pointed, and, in order to make them round,
he has to cut them."

Meiser stuck his head under the table and uttered a cry of horror.

"It's certainly the devil!" said he. "But how did he happen to let
himself go to sleep?"

"Perhaps you did not know that when I came back from the cellar, I
dropped into my chamber? I put a drop of holy water into the Port; charm
against charm, and he is fallen."

"That's splendid! But what shall we do with him, now that we have him in
our power?"

"What is done with demons in Scripture? The Saviour throws them into the
sea."

"The sea is a long way from here."

"But, you big baby, the public wells are just by!"

"And what will be said to-morrow, when the body is found?"

"Nothing at all will be found; and even the check that we signed, will
be turned into tinder."

Ten minutes later, Herr and Frau Meiser were lugging something toward
the public wells, and soon dame Catharine murmured, _sotto voce_, the
following incantation:

"Demon, child of hell, be thou accursed!

"Demon, child of hell, be thou dashed headlong down!

"Demon, child of hell, return to hell!"

A dull sound--the sound of a body falling into water, terminated the
ceremony, and the two spouses returned to their domicil, with the
satisfaction that always follows the performance of a duty.

Nicholas said to himself:

"I didn't think she was so credulous!"

"I didn't think he was so simple!" thought the worthy Kettle, wedded
wife of Claus.

They slept the sleep of innocence. Oh,