er the ground."

Gentle Dora agreed and then planted the entire farm in millet and rye
and poppy seed. At the harvest she took all the grain as her share and
told the devil that the worthless roots belonged to him.

"What chance has a poor devil with such a woman?" he thought to himself
bitterly.

Discouraged and unhappy he went out to the roadside where he sat down.
The troubles of domestic life pressed upon him so heavily that soon he
began to cry.

Presently a journeyman shoemaker came by and said to him:

"Comrade, what ails you?"

The devil looked at the shoemaker and, when he saw that the shoemaker
was a friendly sort of person, he told him his story.

"Why do you stand such treatment?" the shoemaker asked.

The devil snuffled.

"How can I help it? I'm married to her."

"How can you help it?" the shoemaker repeated. "Comrade, look at me. At
home I have just such a wife as your Gentle Dora. There was no living
with her in peace, so one morning bright and early I ups and puts my
tool kit on my shoulder and leaves her. Now I wander about from place to
place, mending a shoe here and a slipper there, and life is much
pleasanter than it used to be. Why don't you leave your Gentle Dora and
come along with me? We'll make out somehow."

The devil was overjoyed at the suggestion and without a moment's
hesitation he tramped off with the shoemaker.

"You won't regret the kindness you've done me," the devil said. "I'm so
thin and pale that probably you don't realize I'm a devil. But I am and
I can reward you."

[Illustration: Soon he began to cry.]

They wandered about together for a long time living on the shoemaker's
earnings. At last one day the devil said:

"Comrade, you have befriended me long enough. It is now my turn to do
something for you. I've got a fine idea. You see that big town we're
coming to? Well, I'll hurry on ahead and take possession of the prince's
young daughter. You come along more slowly and when you hear the
proclamation that the prince will richly reward any one who will cure
his daughter, present yourself at the palace. When they lead you to the
princess, make mysterious passes over her and mumble some gibberish.
Then I will quit her body and the prince will reward you."

The devil's scheme worked perfectly. When the shoemaker reached the town
the herald was already proclaiming the sad news that the princess had
been taken possession of by a devil and that the prince was in search