. When he
did come he was too clever to risk sitting down again on the cobbler's
stool. He didn't even venture inside the cottage door. Instead, he stood
at the window and called out:

"Ho, shoemaker, here I am again! Your time has come! Are you ready?"

"I'll be ready in a moment," the shoemaker said, "Just let me put a last
stitch in these shoes."

When the shoemaker had finished sewing the shoes, he put aside his work,
bade his wife good-bye, and said to the devil:

"Now then, I'm ready. Let us go."

But the devil when he tried to move away from the window found that he
was held fast. It was as if his feet had been soldered to the earth. In
great fright he cried out:

"Oh, my dear little shoemaker, help me! I can't move!"

"What's this trick you're playing on me?" the shoemaker said. "Now I'm
ready to go and you aren't! What do you mean by making a fool of me this
way?"

"Just help me to get free," the devil cried, "and I'll do anything in
the world for you! I'll give you seven more years! I swear I will!"

"Very well," the shoemaker said, "then I'll help you this time. But
never again! Now remember: I won't let you make a fool of me a third
time!"

So the shoemaker freed the devil from the window and the devil without
another word scurried off.

At the end of another seven years he appeared again. But this time he
was too clever to look in the window. He didn't even come near the
cottage. Instead he stood off in the garden under the pear-tree and
called out:

"Ho, there, shoemaker! Your time has come and I am here to get you! Are
you ready?"

"I'll be ready in a moment," the shoemaker said. "Just wait until I put
away my tools. If you feel like it, shake yourself down a nice ripe
pear."

The devil shook the pear-tree and of course when he tried to stop he
couldn't. He shook until all the pears had fallen. He kept on and
presently he had shaken off all the leaves.

When the shoemaker came out and saw the tree stripped and bare and the
devil still shaking it, he pretended to fall into a fearful rage.

"Hi, there, you! What do you mean shaking down all my pears! Stop it! Do
you hear me? Stop it!"

"But I can't stop it!" the poor devil cried.

"We'll see about that!" the shoemaker said.

He ran back into the cottage and got a long leather strap. Then he began
beating the devil unmercifully over his head and shoulders.

The devil made such an outcry that all the village heard him and came
runn