unt and a king!" thought he. "But, for heaven's sake, tell
me where you got your riches from," said he to his brother.

"From behind the door," said he who owned the mill, for he did not
choose to satisfy his brother on that point; but later in the evening,
when he had taken a drop too much, he could not refrain from telling how
he had come by the hand-mill. "There you see what has brought me all my
wealth!" said he, and brought out the mill, and made it grind first one
thing and then another. When the brother saw that, he insisted on having
the mill, and after a great deal of persuasion got it; but he had to
give three hundred dollars for it, and the poor brother was to keep it
till the haymaking was over, for he thought: "If I keep it as long as
that, I can make it grind meat and drink that will last many a long
year." During that time you may imagine that the mill did not grow
rusty, and when hay-harvest came the rich brother got it, but the other
had taken good care not to teach him how to stop it. It was evening when
the rich man got the mill home, and in the morning he bade the old woman
go out and spread the hay after the mowers, and he would attend to the
house himself that day, he said.

So, when dinner-time drew near, he set the mill on the kitchen-table,
and said: "Grind herrings and milk pottage, and do it both quickly and
well."

So the mill began to grind herrings and milk pottage, and first all
the dishes and tubs were filled, and then it came out all over the
kitchen-floor. The man twisted and turned it, and did all he could to
make the mill stop, but, howsoever he turned it and screwed it, the mill
went on grinding, and in a short time the pottage rose so high that the
man was like to be drowned. So he threw open the parlor door, but it was
not long before the mill had ground the parlor full too, and it was
with difficulty and danger that the man could go through the stream of
pottage and get hold of the door-latch. When he got the door open, he
did not stay long in the room, but ran out, and the herrings and pottage
came after him, and it streamed out over both farm and field. Now the
old woman, who was out spreading the hay, began to think dinner was long
in coming, and said to the women and the mowers: "Though the master does
not call us home, we may as well go. It may be that he finds he is not
good at making pottage and I should do well to help him." So they began
to straggle homeward, but when t