t go into the smithy at all himself,
but trusted entirely to his journeyman, who had complete charge
of everything.

Well, it happened one day that the master was not at home,
and the journeyman was left all by himself in the smithy.
Presently he saw an old lady[70] driving along the street in her
carriage, whereupon he popped his head out of doors and began
shouting:--

"Heigh, sirs! Be so good as to step in here! We've
opened a new business here; we turn old folks into young
ones."

Out of her carriage jumped the lady in a trice, and ran into
the smithy.

"What's that you're bragging about? Do you mean to say
it's true? Can you really do it?" she asked the youth.

"We haven't got to learn our business!" answered the
Demon. "If I hadn't been able to do it, I wouldn't have invited
people to try."

"And how much does it cost?" asked the lady.

"Five hundred roubles altogether."

"Well, then, there's your money; make a young woman of
me."

The Demon took the money; then he sent the lady's coachman
into the village.

"Go," says he, "and bring me here two buckets full of
milk."

After that he took a pair of tongs, caught hold of the lady
by the feet, flung her into the furnace, and burnt her up; nothing
was left of her but her bare bones.

When the buckets of milk were brought, he emptied them
into a large tub, then he collected all the bones and flung them
into the milk. Just fancy! at the end of about three minutes
the lady emerged from the milk--alive, and young, and beautiful!

Well, she got into her carriage and drove home. There she
went straight to her husband, and he stared hard at her, but
didn't know she was his wife.

"What are you staring at?" says the lady. "I'm young and
elegant, you see, and I don't want to have an old husband! Be
off at once to the smithy, and get them to make you young; if
you don't, I won't so much as acknowledge you!"

There was no help for it; off set the seigneur. But by that
time the Smith had returned home, and had gone into the
smithy. He looked about; the journeyman wasn't to be seen.
He searched and searched, he enquired and enquired, never a
thing came of it; not even a trace of the youth could be found.
He took to his work by himself, and was hammering away,
when at that moment up drove the seigneur, and walked straight
into the smithy.

"Make a young man of