uch. I am never angry, and never sorrowful; but
then I am never glad, and I feel as if I were only half alive. Cannot
you put a little life into this stone heart? or, better still, give me
back my old heart? It was my companion for five and twenty years, and
if at times it did play me a bad turn, yet on the whole it was a merry
and brave heart."

The forest spirit laughed grimly and bitterly.

"When you are dead, Peter Munk," he replied, "it will not fail you;
then, indeed, will that soft, emotional heart be yours once more, and
you will be able to feel whatever happens to you, joy or sorrow. But
here on this earth it can never return to you! Yes, Peter, you have
certainly been on your travels, but the way in which you lived was too
aimless to be of any use to you. Settle down somewhere in the forest,
build yourself a house, marry; set up in business--it is occupation of
which you are in need; you were bored because you were idle, and yet
you blamed it all upon this unoffending heart!"

Peter perceived that Michael was right in so far as his idleness was
concerned, and determined to amass riches for himself. Michael gave him
another hundred thousand guilders, and they parted good friends.

The story was soon spread throughout the Black-Forest that
Charcoal-Peter Munk, or Gambling-Peter, had returned, this time richer
than before. And it was the same as it is always: when he was reduced
to beggary, they had thrust him from the door in broad daylight; but
now, when he once more visited the inn one fine Sunday afternoon, they
held out their hands to him, praised his horse, asked him about his
travels, and when he sat down to play with Fat Ezekiel with thalers for
points, he stood as high in their esteem as ever. He no longer engaged
in glass-making, but in timber dealing, though this was merely a blind.
His real business was corn-selling and money-lending. By degrees nearly
half the Black Forest was in his debt; he lent money only at a
ruinously high rate of interest, and sold corn only to the poor, to
those who could not pay him cash down for it, at three times its value.
He and the bailiff were now on the friendliest terms, and when anybody
failed to pay Master Peter Munk to the very day, the bailiff and his
myrmidons rode over, made an inventory of all the debtor's belongings
and sold him up, driving father, mother and child out into the forest.
At first, these proceedings caused the wealthy Peter some trouble; for