"A clever fellow that! What do you say to him! I worked hard for three whole nights. I sharpened and sharpened and cut all my fingers sharpening, and now he comes and wants me to change back again with him!" "Just look at him!" I cried. "Well then, it won't be! A great bargain for you--a little bit of steel! Isn't there enough steel knocking about in our attic? There will be enough for our children, and our children's children even." Anyway, I had everything that was necessary. And there only remained one thing for me to do--to scale off the cedar wood from the sofa. For this work I selected a very good time, when my mother was in the shop, and my father had gone to lie down and have a nap after dinner. I hid myself in a corner and, with a big nail, I betook myself to my work in good earnest. My father heard, in his sleep, how some one was scraping something. At first he thought there were mice in the house, and he began to make a noise from his bedroom to drive them off--"Kush! Kush!" I was like dead.... My father turned over on the other side and when I heard him snoring again, I went back to my work. Suddenly I looked about me. My father was standing and staring at me with curious eyes. It appeared that he could not, on any account, understand what was going on--what I was doing. Then, when he saw the spoiled and torn sofa, he realized what I had done. He pulled me out of the corner by the ear and beat me so much that I fainted away and had to be revived. I actually had to have cold water thrown over me to bring me to life again. "The Lord be with you! What have you done to the child?" my mother wailed, the tears starting to her eyes. "Your beautiful son! He will drive me into my grave, while I am still living," said my father, who was white as chalk. He put his hand to his heart and was attacked by a fit of coughing which lasted several minutes. "Why should you eat your heart out like this?" my mother asked him. "As it is you are a sickly man. Just look at the face you've got. May my enemies have as healthy a year!" * * *