the right way," answered the poor
man.

"Well, you're not far wrong, for this is Hell," said the old man; "when
you get inside they will be all for buying your flitch, for meat is
scarce in Hell; but, mind you don't sell it unless you get the
hand-quern which stands behind the door for it. When you come out, I'll
teach you how to handle the quern, for it's good to grind almost
anything."

So the man with the flitch thanked the other for his good advice, and
gave a great knock at the Devil's door.

When he got in, everything was just as the old man had said. All the
devils, great and small, came swarming up to him like ants round an
anthill, and each tried to outbid the other for the flitch.

"Well!" said the man, "by rights, my old dame and I ought to have this
flitch for our Christmas dinner; but since you have all set your hearts
on it, I suppose I must give it up to you; but if I sell it at all, I'll
have for it the quern behind the door yonder."

At first the Devil wouldn't hear of such a bargain, and chaffed and
haggled with the man; but he stuck to what he said, and at last the
Devil had to part with his quern. When the man got out into the yard, he
asked the old woodcutter how he was to handle the quern; and after he
had learned how to use it, he thanked the old man and went off home as
fast as he could, but still the clock had struck twelve on Christmas eve
before he reached his own door.

"Wherever in the world have you been?" said his old dame; "here have I
sat hour after hour waiting and watching, without so much as two sticks
to lay together under the Christmas brose."

"Oh!" said the man, "I couldn't get back before, for I had to go a long
way first for one thing, and then for another; but now you shall see
what you shall see."

So he put the quern on the table, and bade it first of all grind lights,
then a table-cloth, then meat, then ale, and so on till they had got
everything that was nice for Christmas fare. He had only to speak the
word, and the quern ground out what he wanted. The old dame stood by
blessing her stars, and kept on asking where he had got this wonderful
quern, but he wouldn't tell her.

"It's all one where I got it from; you see the quern is a good one, and
the mill-stream never freezes, that's enough."

So he ground meat and drink and dainties enough to last out till Twelfth
Day, and on the third day he asked all his friends and kin to his house,
and gave a great feast. N