36 GREAT CLAUS AND LITTLE CLAUS.

and the cake. Now Little Claus again trod on his sack, and
made the hide creak.

“What does he say now?” said the farmer.

“ He says,” replied Claus, “that he has conjured three bottles
of wine for ys too, and that they are standing there in the corner
behind the oven.”

Now the woman was obliged to bring out the wine which she
had ‘hidden, and the farmer drank it and became very merry.
He would have been very glad to see such a conjuror as Little
Claus had there in the sack.

“Can he conjure the demon forth?” asked the farmer. “1
should like to see him, for now I am merry.”

“Oh, yes,” said little Claus, “my conjuror can do anything
that I ask of him.—Can you not?” he added, and trod on the
hide, so that it crackled. ‘He says ‘Yes.’ But the demon is
very ugly to look at: we had better not see him.”

‘©Oh, I’m not at all afraid. Pray, what will he look like?”

“Why, he’! look the very image of a clerk.”

“Ha!” said the farmer, “that zsugly! You must know, I can’t
bear tha. sight ofa clerk. But it doesn’t matter now, for [ know
that he’s a demon, so I shall easily stand it. Now I have courage,
but he must not come too near me.”

“ Now I will ask my conjuror,” said Little Claus ; and he trod
on the sack and held his ear down.

“What does he say ?”

‘He says you may go and open the chest that stands in the ©
corner, and you will see the demon crouching in it; but you
must hold the lid so that he doesn’t slip out.”

“ Will you help me to hold him?” asked the farmer. And he
went to the chest where the wife had hidden the real clerk, who
sat in there and was very much afraid. The farmer opened the
lid a little way and peeped in underneath it.

“Hu!” hecried, and sprang backward. “ Yes,now I 'veseen
pene he looked exactly like our clerk. Oh, that was dread-

* ful!

Upon this they must drink. So they sat and drank until
late into the night.

“You must sell me that conjuror,” said the farmer. “ Ask as
much as you like for him: 1’ll give youa whole bushel of money
directly.”

““No, that I can’t do,” said Little Claus: “only think how
eauch use I can make of this conjuror.”

“Oh, I should so much like to have him!” cried the farmer;
and he went on begging.

“Well,” said Little Claus, at last, “as you have been so kind
as to give me shelter for the night, I will Jet it be so. You shall
have the conjuror for a bushel of money; but I must have the
bushel heaped up.”