down into the third cellar. There in the middle of it was a
brazen caldron set deep in the floor and full of something that
seethed and bubbled. "I wonder what that is in the caldron," said the
lad to himself, and he stuck his finger in. When he drew it out it was
covered all over with gold. The lad scrubbed and scrubbed, but he
could not get the gold off. Then he was terribly frightened. He took a
rag and wound it about his finger and hoped his master would not
notice it. He shut the door into the cellar and tried to forget about
it.

The first thing the Master asked when he came home was, "Have you been
down in the third cellar?"

"How can you think it?" asked the lad. "Two drubbings are enough for
any one."

"What is the matter with your finger?" asked the Master.

"Oh, I cut it with the bread-knife."

The Master snatched the rag off, and there the lad's finger shone as
though it were all of solid gold.

"You have been down in the third cellar," cried the Master, "and now
you must die,"--and his face was as pale as death. He took down a
sword from the wall, but the lad fell on his knees and begged and
pleaded so piteously for his life that at last the man had to spare
him. All the same he gave him such a beating that the lad could not
rise from the floor. There he lay and groaned. Then the Master took a
flask of ointment from the wall and bathed him all over, and after
that the lad was just as well as ever.

Now the Master stayed at home for a long while, but at last he had to
go away on still another journey, and now he was to be gone a whole
month. "And if you dare to look in the fourth cellar while I am away,
then you shall surely die," said he. "Do not hope that I will spare
you again, for I will not."

After he had gone the lad resisted his curiosity for three whole
weeks. He was dying to look in the fourth cellar and see what was
there, but he dared not, for dear life's sake. But at the end of the
third week he was so curious that he could resist no longer. He opened
the fourth door and went down the steps into the cellar, and there was
a magnificent coal-black horse chained to a manger, and the manger was
filled with red-hot coals. At the horse's tail was a basket of hay.

"That is a cruel thing to do to an animal," cried the lad, and he
loosed the horse from the manger and turned him so he could eat.

Then the black steed spoke to him in a human tone. "You have done a
Christian act," said the ho