th fright.

"Gentle Dora!" he gasped. "Lucifer, help me!"

Without another word he jumped out the window and flew straight down to
hell as fast as the wind could carry him. And so great is his fear of
Gentle Dora that he has never dared to show his face on earth again.

The king rewarded the shoemaker royally and to this day the shoemaker is
wandering merrily about from place to place. Whenever he hears of a
woman who is a scold, he says:

"Why, she's a regular Gentle Dora, isn't she?"

And when people ask him: "Who's Gentle Dora?" he tells them this story.

THE DEVIL'S MATCH

THE STORY OF A FARMER WHO REMEMBERED WHAT HIS GRANDMOTHER TOLD HIM

[Illustration]

THE DEVIL'S MATCH

Once upon a time there was a poor farmer who lived in a wretched
tumble-down cottage beyond the village and whose farm consisted of a
miserable little field no bigger than your hand. His children were
ragged and hungry and his wife was always worried over getting them
enough to eat.

Yet the farmer was a clever fellow with a quick shrewd wit and people
used to say that he'd be able to fool the devil if ever he had the
chance. One day the chance came.

His wife had sent him into the forest to gather a bundle of faggots.
Suddenly without any warning a young man with black face and shiny eyes
stood before him.

"It's a devil, of course," the farmer told himself. "But even so there's
no use being frightened."

So he wished the devil a civil good-day and the devil, who was really a
very simple fellow indeed, returned his greeting and asked him what he
was doing in the forest.

Now the farmer suddenly remembered that his grandmother had once told
him devils were afraid of lime trees because the bast from lime trees is
the one thing in the world they are unable to break. That's why, when
you catch a devil, you must tie his hands together with bast.

So the farmer, recalling what his grandmother had said, remarked
casually:

"Oh, I'm looking for a lime tree. I want to strip off some bast. Then
I'm going after _them_"--and when he said _them_ he paused
significantly--"and tie them hand and foot."

He peeped at the devil out of the corner of his eye and saw that the
devil had turned almost white under his black skin.

"He is a foolish one!" he thought to himself.

"Oh, don't do that!" the devil cried. "What have we ever done to you?"

The farmer pretended to be firm and repeated that that was just what he
was going