“Hah, I frightened you, then. I had been to the fair and bought a
butter-churn, and when I saw you, I got into it, and rolled down the
hill.”
Then the wolf was very angry indeed, and declared he _would_ eat up the
little pig, and that he would get down the chimney after him. When the
little pig saw what he was about, he hung on the pot full of water, and
made up a blazing fire, and, just as the wolf was coming down, took
off the cover, and in fell the wolf; so the little pig put on the cover
again in an instant, boiled him up, and ate him for supper, and lived
happy ever afterwards.
THE MASTER AND HIS PUPIL
There was once a very learned man in the north-country who knew all the
languages under the sun, and who was acquainted with all the mysteries
of creation. He had one big book bound in black calf and clasped with
iron, and with iron corners, and chained to a table which was made fast
to the floor; and when he read out of this book, he unlocked it with an
iron key, and none but he read from it, for it contained all the secrets
of the spiritual world. It told how many angels there were in heaven,
and how they marched in their ranks, and sang in their quires, and what
were their several functions, and what was the name of each great angel
of might. And it told of the demons, how many of them there were, and
what were their several powers, and their labours, and their names, and
how they might be summoned, and how tasks might be imposed on them, and
how they might be chained to be as slaves to man.
Now the master had a pupil who was but a foolish lad, and he acted as
servant to the great master, but never was he suffered to look into the
black book, hardly to enter the private room.
One day the master was out, and then the lad, as curious as could be,
hurried to the chamber where his master kept his wondrous apparatus
for changing copper into gold, and lead into silver, and where was his
mirror in which he could see all that was passing in the world, and
where was the shell which when held to the ear whispered all the words
that were being spoken by anyone the master desired to know about. The
lad tried in vain with the crucibles to turn copper and lead into gold
and silver--he looked long and vainly into the mirror; smoke and clouds
passed over it, but he saw nothing plain, and the shell to his ear
produced only indistinct murmurings, like the breaking of distant seas
on an unknown shore. “I can do nothing,” he said; “as I don't know the
right words to utter, and they are locked up in yon book.”
He looked round, and, see! the book was unfastened; the master had
forgotten to lock it before he went out. The boy rushed to it, and
unclosed the volume. It was written with red and black ink, and much of
it he could not understand; but he put his finger on a line and spelled
it through.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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