which he examined carefully.

'How foolish to bid me to put sand on the floors,' he thought, 'when
there is nobody here by myself! I shall do nothing of the sort.' And
so he shut the doors quickly, and only cleaned and set in order his own
room. And after the first few days he felt that that was unnecessary
too, because no one came there to see if the rooms where clean or not.
At last he did no work at all, but just sat and wondered what was behind
the locked door, till he determined to go and look for himself.

The key turned easily in the lock. Hans entered, half frightened at what
he was doing, and the first thing he beheld was a heap of bones. That
was not very cheerful; and he was just going out again when his eye
fell on a shelf of books. Here was a good way of passing the time, he
thought, for he was fond of reading, and he took one of the books from
the shelf. It was all about magic, and told you how you could change
yourself into anything in the world you liked. Could anything be more
exciting or more useful? So he put it in his pocket, and ran quickly
away out of the mountain by a little door which had been left open.

When he got home his parents asked him what he had been doing and where
he had got the fine clothes he wore.

'Oh, I earned them myself,' answered he.

'You never earned them in this short time,' said his father. 'Be off
with you; I won't keep you here. I will have no thieves in my house!'

'Well I only came to help you,' replied the boy sulkily. 'Now I'll be
off, as you wish; but to-morrow morning when you rise you will see a
great dog at the door. Do not drive it away, but take it to the castle
and sell it to the duke, and they will give you ten dollars for it; only
you must bring the strap you lead it with, back to the house.'

Sure enough the next day the dog was standing at the door waiting to be
let in. The old man was rather afraid of getting into trouble, but his
wife urged him to sell the dog as the boy had bidden him, so he took it
up to the castle and sold it to the duke for ten dollars. But he did not
forget to take off the strap with which he had led the animal, and to
carry it home. When he got there old Kirsten met him at the door.

'Well, Peder, and have you sold the dog?' asked she.

'Yes, Kirsten; and I have brought back ten dollars, as the boy told us,'
answered Peder.

'Ay! but that's fine!' said his wife. 'Now you see what one gets by
doing as one is bid; if it had