is place, for
the old woman was kind enough to him.

One day, entering the forge next to her house, he saw a vast number of
scythe-handles and rakes, and a big heap of blades, and wondered beyond
measure what the old lady could want with all these. It was the fifth
day--the Friday--and when he was asleep that night, the same elf-woman
whom he had seen upon the mountains came again to him and said:--

"Large as are the meadows you have mown, your employer will easily be
able to rake in all that hay to-morrow, and if she does so, will, as you
know, drive you away without paying you. When therefore you see yourself
worsted, go into the forge, take as many scythe-handles as you think
proper, fit their blades to them, and carry them out into that part of
the land where the hay is yet uncut. There you must lay them on the
ground, and you shall see how things go."

This said, she disappeared, and in the morning the laborer, getting up,
set to work as usual at his mowing.

At six o'clock the old witch came out, bringing five rakes with her, and
said to the man, "A goodly piece of ground you have mowed, indeed!"

And so saying, she spread the rakes upon the hay. Then the man saw, to
his astonishment, that though the one she held in her hand raked in
great quantities of hay, the other four raked in no less each, all of
their own accord, and with no hand to wield them.

At noon, seeing that the old woman would soon get the best of him, he
went into the forge and took out several scythe-handles, to which he
fixed their blades, and bringing them out into the field, laid them down
upon the grass which was yet standing. Then all the scythes set to work
of their own accord, and cut down the grass so quickly that the rakes
could not keep pace with them. And so they went on all the rest of the
day, and the old woman was unable to rake in all the hay which lay in
the fields. After dark she told him to gather up his scythes and take
them into the house again, while she collected her rakes, saying
to him:--

"You are wiser than I took you to be, and you know more than myself; so
much the better for you, for you may stay as long with me as you like."

He spent the whole summer in her employment, and they agreed very well
together, mowing with mighty little trouble a vast amount of hay. In the
autumn she sent him away, well laden with money, to his own home in the
south. The next summer, and more than one summer following, he spent in