good food as you
want every day, and I will give you liberal wages too, if you will do
your duty faithfully." The bargain was struck, and the master took his
new servant into the house, and showed him what he had to do. A cellar
was hewn in the rock, and closed with threefold doors of iron. "My
savage dogs are chained in this cellar," said the master, "and you must
take care that they do not dig their way out under the door with their
paws. For know that if one of these savage dogs got loose, it would no
longer be possible to restrain the others, for each would follow the
other and destroy everything which lives upon the earth. If the last dog
should break out, the end of the world would come, and the sun would
have shone for the last time." Then he led his servant to a hill which
was not created by God, but heaped together by human hands from immense
blocks of stone.

"These stones," said the master, "have been heaped together so that a
fresh stone can always be rolled up as often as the dogs dig out a hole.
I will show you the oxen which drag the stones, in the stall, and
instruct you about everything else which you have to attend to."

In the stall were a hundred black oxen, each of which had seven horns,
and they were fully as large as the largest oxen of the Ukraine.[149]
"Six yoke of oxen harnessed before the waggon will drag a stone easily
away. I will give you a crowbar, and when you touch the stone with it,
it will roll into the waggon of itself. You see that your work is not
very laborious, but your vigilance must be great in proportion. You must
look to the door three times during the day, and once at night, lest any
misfortune should happen, for the mischief might be much greater than
you would be able to answer for to me."

Our friend soon comprehended his duties, and his new occupation was just
to his taste. Each day he had the best of everything to eat and drink
that a man could wish for. After two or three months the dogs had
scratched a hole under the door large enough to put their tails out; but
a stone was immediately rolled against the breach, and the dogs were
forced to begin their work afresh.

Many years passed by, and the young man had accumulated a good store of
money. Then the desire awoke in him to mingle with other men again, for
it was so long since he had seen any human face except his master's.
Although his master was kind, the young man found the time terribly
long, especially when h