>>6091609do it please. i want a stories thread :)
>>6091615"Ready, aye, ready," answered the smith; "we can go now as soon as you please; but there is one thing I have stood here and thought, and thought, I would ask you to tell me. Is it true what people say, that the devil can make himself as small as he pleases?"
"Snout knows, it is the very truth," said the devil.
"Oh!" said the smith; "it's true, is it? Then I wish you would just be so good as to creep into this steel purse of mine, and see whether it is sound at the bottom, for, to tell you the truth, I'm afraid my travelling money will drop out."
"With all my heart," said the devil, who made himself small in a thrice, and crept into the purse; but he was hardly in when the smith snapped to the clasp.
"Yes," called out the devil inside the purse; "it's right and tight everywhere."
"Very good," said the smith; "I'm glad to hear you say so, but "More haste the worse speed," says the old saw, and "Forewarned is forearmed," says another; so I'll just weld these links a little together, just for safety's sake." With that wisdom he laid the purse in the furnace, and made it red hot.
"Ouch! Ouch!" screamed the devil, "are you mad? don't you know I'm inside the purse?"
"Yes, I do!" said the smith; "but I can't help you, for another old saw says, "One must strike while the iron is hot;" and as he said this, he took up his sledge-hammer, laid the pulse on the anvil, and let fly at it as hard as he could.
"Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!" bellowed the devil, inside the purse. "Dear friend, do let me out, and I'll never come near you again."