a man, a strong fellow, offered him his services, to sit up alone
and guard the house. The farmer told him what fate awaited him for his
rashness; but the man despised such a fear, and persisted in his
determination.

On Christmas Eve, when the farmer and all his family, except the new
man-servant, were preparing for church, the farmer said to him, "Come
with us to church; I cannot leave you here to die."

But the other replied, "I intend to stay here, for it would be unwise in
you to leave your house unprotected; and besides, the cattle and sheep
must have their food at the proper time."

"Never mind the beasts," answered the farmer. "Do not be so rash as to
remain in the house this night; for whenever we have returned from
church on this night, we have always found every living thing in the
house dead, with all its bones broken."

But the man was not to be persuaded, as he considered all these fears
beneath his notice; so the farmer and the rest of the servants went away
and left him behind, alone in the house.

As soon as he was by himself he began to consider how to guard against
anything that might occur; for a dread had stolen over him, in spite of
his courage, that something strange was about to take place. At last he
thought that the best thing to do was, first of all to light up the
family room; and then to find some place in which to hide himself. As
soon as he had lighted all the candles, he moved two planks out of the
wainscot at the end of the room, and creeping into the space between it
and the wall, restored the planks to their places, so that he could see
plainly into the room and yet avoid being himself discovered.

He had scarcely finished concealing himself, when two fierce and
strange-looking men entered the room and began looking about.

One of them said, "I smell a human being."

"No," replied the other, "there is no human being here."

Then they took a candle and continued their search, until they found the
man's dog asleep under one of the beds. They took it up, and having
dashed it on the ground till every bone in its body was broken, hurled
it from them. When the man-servant saw this, he congratulated himself on
not having fallen into their hands.

Suddenly the room was filled with people, who were laden with tables
and all kinds of table furniture, silver, cloths, and all, which they
spread out, and having done so, sat down to a rich supper, which they
had also brought with them. T