his pigs again, nor could he discover the person from whom he
had bought them.

* * * * *

Rubezahl once betook himself to the Hirschberg, which is in the
neighbourhood of his forest haunts, and there offered his services as
a woodcutter to one of the townsmen, asking for his remuneration
nothing more than a bundle of wood. This the man promised him,
accepting his offer, and pointed out some cart-loads, intending to
give him some assistance. To this offer of help in his labours
Rubezahl replied--

"No. It is quite unnecessary. All that is to be done I can very well
accomplish by myself."

Upon this his new master made a few further inquiries, asking him what
sort of a hatchet he had got, for he had noticed that his supposed
servant was without one.

"Oh," said Rubezahl, "I'll soon get a hatchet."

Accordingly he laid hands upon his left leg, and pulled that and his
foot and all off at the thigh, and with it cut, as if he had been
raving mad, all the wood into small pieces of proper lengths and sizes
in about a quarter of an hour, thus proving that a dismembered foot is
a thousand times more effectual for such purposes than the sharpest
axe.

In the meanwhile the owner (who saw plainly that mischief was
intended) kept calling upon the wondrous woodcutter to desist and go
about his business. Rubezahl, however, kept incessantly answering--

"No, I won't stir from this spot until I have hewn the wood as small
as I agreed to, and have got my wages for so doing."

In the midst of such quarrelling Rubezahl finished his job, and
screwed his leg on again, for while at work he had been standing on
one leg, after the fashion of a stork. Then he gathered together into
one bundle all he had cut, placed it on his shoulder, and started off
with it towards his favourite retreat, heedless of the tears and
lamentations of his master.

On this occasion Rubezahl did not appear in the character of a
sportive or mischievous spirit, but as an avenger of injustice, for
his employer had induced a number of poor men to bring wood to his
home upon the promise of paying them wages, which, however, he had
never paid them. Rubezahl laid at the door of each of these poor men
as much of the wood he carried away as would repay them, and so the
business was brought to a proper termination.

* * * * *

It once happened that a messenger vexed or played some trick upon
Rubezahl,