asleep, with his saddle for a pillow.

At midnight he dreamed that he saw a tall and aged woman enter his tent,
who spoke thus to him:--"I am beholden to you, good man, for your
kindness to my daughter, but am unable to reward you as you deserve.
Here is a scythe which I place beneath your pillow; it is the only gift
I can make you, but despise it not. It will surely prove useful to you,
as it can cut down all that lies before it. Only beware of putting it
into the fire to temper it. Sharpen it, however, as you will, but in
that way never." So saying, she was seen no more.

When the man awoke and looked forth, he found the mist all gone and the
sun high in heaven; so getting all his things together and striking his
tent, he laid them upon the pack-horses, saddling last of all his own
horse. But on lifting his saddle from the ground, he found beneath it a
small scythe blade, which seemed well worn and was rusty. On seeing
this, he at once recalled to mind his dream, and taking the scythe with
him, set out once more on his way. He soon found again the road which he
had lost, and made all speed to reach the well-peopled district to which
he was bound.

When he arrived at the north country, he went from house to house, but
did not find any employment, for every farmer had laborers enough, and
one week of hay-harvest was already past. He heard it said, however,
that one old woman in the district, generally thought by her neighbors
to be skilled in magic and very rich, always began her hay-cutting a
week later than anybody else, and though she seldom employed a laborer,
always contrived to finish it by the end of the season. When by any
chance--and it was a rare one--she did engage a workman, she was never
known to pay him for his work.

Now the peasant from the south was advised to ask this old woman for
employment, having been warned of her strange habits.

He accordingly went to her house, and offered himself to her as a day
laborer. She accepted his offer, and told him that he might, if he
chose, work a week for her, but must expect no payment.

"Except," she said, "you can cut more grass in the whole week than I can
rake in on the last day of it."

To these terms he gladly agreed, and began mowing. And a very good
scythe he found that to be which the woman had given him in his dream;
for it cut well, and never wanted sharpening, though he worked with it
for five days unceasingly. He was well content, too, with h