OH. 3

three days, but then he ran away home, climbed up
on the stove, and again began playing with the cinders.
His father then gave him a sound drubbing and sent
him to a cobbler’s to learn eobbling, but again he ran
away home. His father gave him another drubbing
and sent him to a blacksmith to learn smith’s work.
But there, too, he did not remain long but ran away
home again, so what was that poor father to do?
“Tl tell thee what T’ll do with thee, thou son of a
dog!” said he; ‘I'll take thee, thou lazy lout, into
another kingdom. There, perchance, they will be
able to teach thee better than they can here, and it
will be too far to run away from.” So he took him
and set out on his journey,

They went on and on, they went a short way and
they went a long way, and at last they came to a
forest so dark that they could see neither earth
nor sky. They went through this forest, but in a
short time they grew very tired, and when they came
to a path leading to a clearing full of large tree-
stumps, the father said: “I am so tired out that I
will rest here a little,” and with that he sat down
on a tree-stump and eried: “Oh, how tired I am!”
He had no sooner said these words, than out of the
tree-stump, nobody could say how, sprang such a
little little old man all so wrinkled and puekered, and
his beard was quite green and reached night down to