her employ, always being paid as his heart could desire, at the end of
the season.

After some years he took a farm of his own in the south country, and
was always looked upon by all his neighbors as an honest man, a good
fisherman, and an able workman in whatever he might put his hand to. He
always cut his own hay, never using any scythe but that which the
elf-woman had given him upon the mountains; nor did any of his neighbors
ever finish their mowing before him.

One summer it chanced that while he was fishing, one of his neighbors
came to his house and asked his wife to lend him her husband's scythe,
as he had lost his own. The farmer's wife looked for one, but could only
find the one upon which her husband set such store. This, however, a
little loth, she lent to the man, begging him at the same time never to
temper it in the fire; for that, she said, her good man never did. So
the neighbor promised, and taking it with him, bound it to a handle and
began to work with it. But, sweep as he would, and strain as he would
(and sweep and strain he did right lustily), not a single blade of grass
fell. Wroth at this, the man tried to sharpen it, but with no avail.
Then he took it into his forge, intending to temper it, for, thought he,
what harm could that possibly do? but as soon as the flames touched it,
the steel melted like wax, and nothing was left but a little heap of
ashes. Seeing this, he went in haste to the farmer's house, where he had
borrowed it, and told the woman what had happened; she was at her wits'
end with fright and shame when she heard it, for she knew well enough
how her husband set store by this scythe, and how angry he would be
at its loss.

And angry indeed he was, when he came home, and he beat his wife well
for her folly in lending what was not hers to lend. But his wrath was
soon over, and he never again, as he never had before, laid the stick
about his wife's shoulders.

THE MAN-SERVANT AND THE WATER-ELVES

In a large house, where all the chief rooms were paneled, there lived
once upon a time a farmer, whose ill-fate it was that every servant of
his that was left alone to guard the house on Christmas Eve, while the
rest of the family went to church, was found dead when the family
returned home. As soon as the report of this was spread abroad, the
farmer had the greatest difficulty in procuring servants who would
consent to watch alone in the house on that night; until at last, one
day