orever."

The Devil frothed at his mouth, and blue fire issued from his ears and
nostrils. He was the maddest devil ever seen on earth.

"I won't do it!" roared the Devil. "Do you suppose I'm going to spend my
time building churches and stultifying myself just for the sake of
gratifying your idle whims? I won't do it,--never!"

"Then the bond I gave is null and void," said Daniel.

"Take your old bond," said the Devil, petulantly.

"But the bond you gave is operative," continued Daniel. "So release the
thousand and one souls you owe me when you refuse to obey me."

"Oh, Daniel!" whimpered the Devil, "how can you treat me so? Have n't I
always been good to you? Have n't I given you riches and prosperity?
Does no sentiment of friendship--"

"Hush," said Daniel, interrupting him. "I have already told you a
thousand times that our relations were simply those of one business man
with another. It now behooves you to fulfil your part of our compact;
eventually I shall fulfil mine. Come, now, to business! Will you or
will you not keep your word and save your bond?"

The Devil was sorely put to his trumps. But when it came to releasing a
thousand and one souls from hell,--ah, that staggered him! He had to
build the church, and a noble one it was too. Then he endowed the
church, and finally he built a parsonage; altogether it was a stupendous
work, and Daniel got all the credit for it. The preacher whom Daniel
installed in this magnificent temple was severely orthodox, and one of
the first things he did was to preach a series of sermons upon the
personality of the Devil, wherein he inveighed most bitterly against that
person and his work.

By and by Daniel made the Devil endow and build a number of hospitals,
charity schools, free baths, libraries, and other institutions of similar
character. Then he made him secure the election of honest men to office
and of upright judges to the bench. It almost broke the Devil's heart to
do it, but the Devil was prepared to do almost anything else than forfeit
his bond and give up those one thousand and one souls. By this time
Daniel came to be known far and wide for his philanthropy and his piety.
This gratified him of course; but most of all he gloried in the
circumstance that he was a business man.

"Have you anything for me to do today?" asked the Devil, one morning. He
had grown to be a very meek and courteous devil; steady employment in
righteous causes had c