sked for a trifle for Christmas, in
heaven's name. It was not the first time the brother had helped him, but
he was always very close-fisted, and was not particularly glad to see
him this time.

"If you'll do what I tell you, you shall have a whole ham," he said. The
poor brother promised he would, and was very grateful into the bargain.

"There it is, and now go to the devil!" said the rich brother, and threw
the ham across to him.

"Well, what I have promised I must keep," said the other one. He took
the ham, and set out. He walked and walked the whole day, and as it was
getting dark he came to a place where the lights were shining brightly.
"This is most likely the place," thought the man with the ham.

In the woodshed stood an old man with a long white beard, cutting
fire-wood for Christmas.

"Good evening," said he with the ham.

"Good evening to you," said the man. "Where are you going so late?"

"I am going to the devil--that is to say, if I am on the right way,"
answered the poor man.

"Yes, you are quite right; this is his place," said the old man. "When
you get in, they will all want to buy your ham, for ham is scarce food
here; but you must not sell it unless you get the hand-quern, which
stands just behind the door. When you come out again, I'll teach you how
to use it. You will find it useful in many ways."

The man with the ham thanked him for all the information, and knocked at
the door.

When he got in, it happened just as the old man had said. All the imps,
both big and small, flocked around him like ants in a field, and the one
outbid the other for the ham.

"Well," said the man, "my good woman and I were to have it for Christmas
Eve, but since you want it so badly I will let you have it. But if I am
going to part with it, I want that hand-quern which stands behind the
door."

The devil did not like to part with it, and higgled and haggled with the
man, but he stuck to what he had said, and in the end the devil had to
part with the quern.

When the man came out, he asked the old wood-cutter how he was to use
the quern, and when he had learned this, he thanked the old man and set
out homewards as quickly as he could; but after all he did not get home
till the clock struck twelve on Christmas Eve.

"Where in all the world have you been?" said his wife. "Here have I been
sitting, hour after hour, waiting and watching for you, and have not had
as much as two chips to lay under the porridg