loudly.

'Hush!' said Little Klaus to his sack, at the same time treading on it
again so that it squeaked even louder than before.

'Hullo! what have you got in your sack?' asked the farmer.

'Oh, it is a wizard!' said Little Klaus. 'He says we should not eat
porridge, for he has conjured the whole oven full of roast meats and
fish and cakes.'

'Goodness me!' said the farmer; and opening the oven he saw all the
delicious, tempting dishes his wife had hidden there, but which he now
believed the wizard in the sack had conjured up for them. The wife
could say nothing, but she put the food at once on the table, and they
ate the fish, the roast meat, and the cakes. Little Klaus now trod
again on his sack, so that the skin squeaked.

'What does he say now?' asked the farmer.

'He says,' replied Little Klaus, 'that he has also conjured up for us
three bottles of wine; they are standing in the corner by the oven!'

The wife had to fetch the wine which she had hidden, and the farmer
drank and grew very merry. He would very much like to have had such a
wizard as Little Klaus had in the sack.

'Can he conjure up the Devil?' asked the farmer. 'I should like to see
him very much, for I feel just now in very good spirits!'

'Yes,' said Little Klaus; 'my wizard can do everything that I ask.
Isn't that true?' he asked, treading on the sack so that it squeaked.
'Do you hear? He says "Yes;" but that the Devil looks so ugly that we
should not like to see him.'

'Oh! I'm not at all afraid. What does he look like?'

'He will show himself in the shape of a sexton!'

'I say!' said the farmer, 'he must be ugly! You must know that I can't
bear to look at a sexton! But it doesn't matter. I know that it is the
Devil, and I sha'n't mind! I feel up to it now. But he must not come
too near me!'

'I must ask my wizard,' said Little Klaus, treading on the sack and
putting his ear to it.

'What does he say?'

'He says you can open the chest in the corner there, and you will see
the Devil squatting inside it; but you must hold the lid so that he
shall not escape.'

'Will you help me to hold him?' begged the farmer, going towards the
chest where his wife had hidden the real sexton, who was sitting
inside in a terrible fright. The farmer opened the lid a little way,
and saw him inside.

'Ugh!' he shrieked, springing back. 'Yes, now I have seen him; he
looked just like our sexton. Oh, it was horrid!'

So he had to drink again, and t