can very easily do that! But
if I learn so speedily what shivering is, then you shall have my fifty
dollars if you come again in the morning."

Then the boy went to the gallows, sat down, and waited for evening, and
as he felt cold he made a fire. But about midnight the wind blew so
sharp, that in spite of the fire he could not keep himself warm. The
wind blew the bodies against one another, so that they swung backward
and forward, and he thought, "If I am cold here below by the fire, how
must they freeze above!" So his compassion was excited, and, contriving
a ladder, he mounted, and, unloosening them one after another, he
brought down all seven. Then he poked and blew the fire, and set them
round that they might warm themselves; but as they sat still without
moving their clothing caught fire. So he said, "Take care of yourselves,
or I will hang all of you up again." The dead heard not, and silently
allowed their rags to burn. This made him so angry that he said, "If you
will not hear I cannot help you; but I will not burn with you." So he
hung them up again in a row, and sitting down by the fire he soon went
to sleep. The next morning the man came, expecting to receive his fifty
dollars, and asked, "Now do you know what shivering means?" "No," he
answered; "how should I know? Those fellows up there have not opened
their mouths, and were so stupid that they let the old rags on their
bodies be burnt." Then the man saw that he should not carry away the
fifty dollars that day, so he went away saying, "I never met with such a
one before."

The boy also went on his way and began again to say, "Ah, if only I
could but shiver--if I could but shiver!" A wagoner walking behind
overheard him, and asked, "Who are you?"

"I do not know," answered the boy.

The wagoner asked again, "What do you here?"

"I know not."

"Who is your father?"

"I dare not say."

"What is it you are continually grumbling about?"

"Oh," replied the youth, "I wish to learn what shivering is, but nobody
can teach me."

"Cease your silly talk," said the wagoner. "Come with me, and I will see
what I can do for you." So the boy went with the wagoner, and about
evening time they arrived at an inn where they put up for the night, and
while they were going into the parlor he said, quite aloud, "Oh, if I
could but shiver--if I could but shiver!" The host overheard him and
said, laughingly, "Oh, if that is all you wish, you shall soon have the
oppor