These words are almost a law. There is nothing worse in the world than playing yourself out. Experienced people say it deprives a man even of his last shirt. It drives a man to desperate acts. And one cannot hope to rise at the Resurrection after that. So people say. And so it happened with our young man. He worked so long, shaking his cap, "odd or even," taking from one pocket and putting into the other, until his left-hand pocket hadn't a single nut in it. "Well, why don't you play?" "I have nothing to play with." "Again you have no nuts, good-for-nothing!" "You say I am a good-for-nothing. And I say you are a cheat." "If you call me a cheat again, I will give you a clout in the jaw." "Let the Lord put it into your head." Getzel sat quiet for a few minutes, scraping the ground with his fingers, digging a hole, and muttering a song under his breath. Then he said: "Dirty thing, let us play nuts." "Where have I nuts?" "Haven't you money? I will sell you another ten." "Money? Where have I money?" "No money and no nuts? Oh, I can't stand it. Ha! ha! ha!" The laugh echoed over the whole field, and re-echoed in the distant wood. Getzel was convulsed with laughter. "What are you laughing at, you Goyetzel you?" he asked himself. And he answered himself in a different voice: "I am laughing at you, good-for-nothing. Isn't it enough that you lost all my nuts on me? Why did you want to go and lose my money as well? Such a lot of money. You fool of fools! Oh, I can't get over it. Ha! ha! ha!" "You yourself brought me to it. You wicked one of wicked ones! You scamp! You rascal!" "Fool of the night! If I were to tell you to cut off your nose, must you do it? You idiot! You animal with the horse's face, you! Ha! ha! ha!" "Be quiet, at any rate, you Goyetzel, you. And let me not see your forbidding countenance." And he turned away from himself, sat sulky for a few minutes, scraping the earth with his fingers. He covered the hole he had made, as he sang a little song under his breath. "Do you know what I will tell you, Getzel?" he said to himself a few minutes later. "Let us forgive one another. Let us be friends. The Lord helped me. It was my luck to win so many nuts--may no evil eye harm them! Why should we not enjoy ourselves? Let's crack a few nuts. I should think they are not bad! Well, what do you say, Getzel?" "Yes, I also think they ought not to be bad," he answered himself. He thrust a nut into his mouth, a second, a third. Each time, he banged his teeth with his fists. The nut was cracked. He took out a fat kernel, cleaned it round, threw it back in his mouth, and chewed it pleasurably with his strong white teeth. He crunched them as a horse crunches oats. He said to himself: "Would you also like the kernel of a nut, Getzel? Speak out. Do not be ashamed." "Why not?" That was how he answered himself. He stretched out his left hand, but only smacked it with his right. "Will you have a plague?" "Let it be a plague."