Children -- Conduct of life -- Juvenile fiction; Children's stories; Conduct of life -- Juvenile fiction; Fairy tales; Fantasy literature
But the next morning the Demon appeared as he had appeared ever
since the Tailor had let him out of the bottle, only now he grinned
till his teeth shone and his face turned black. “What hast thou
for me to do?” said he, and at the words the Tailor’s heart began
to quake, for he remembered what was to happen to him when he
could find the Demon no more work to do--that his neck was to be
wrung--and now he began to see that he had all that he could ask
for in the world. Yes; what was there to ask for now?
“I have nothing more for you to do,” said he to the Demon; “you
have done all that man could ask--you may go now.”
“Go!” cried the Demon, “I shall not go until I have done all that
I have to do. Give me work, or I shall wring your neck.” And his
fingers began to twitch.
Then the Tailor began to see into what a net he had fallen. He
began to tremble like one in an ague. He turned his eyes up and
down, for he did not know where to look for aid. Suddenly, as he
looked out of the window, a thought struck him. “Maybe,” thought
he, “I can give, the Demon such a task that even he cannot do it.”
“Yes, yes!” he cried, “I have thought of something for you to do.
Make me out yonder in front of my palace a lake of water a mile
long and a mile wide, and let it be lined throughout with white
marble, and filled with water as clear as crystal.”
“It shall be done,” said the Demon. As he spoke he spat in the air,
and instantly a thick fog arose from the earth and hid everything
from sight. Then presently from the midst of the fog there came a
great noise of chipping and hammering, of digging and delving, of
rushing and gurgling. All day the noise and the fog continued, and
then at sunset the one ceased and the other cleared away. The poor
Tailor looked out the window, and when he saw what he saw his teeth
chattered in his head, for there was a lake a mile long and a mile
broad, lined within with white marble, and filled with water as
clear as crystal, and he knew that the Demon would come the next
morning for another task to do.
That night he slept little or none, and when the seventh hour of
the morning came the castle began to rock and tremble, and there
stood the Demon, and his hair bristled and his eyes shone like
sparks of fire. “What hast thou for me to do?” said he, and the
poor Tailor could do nothing but look at him with a face as white
as dough.
“What hast thou for me to do?” said the Demon again, and then at
last the Tailor found his wits and his tongue from sheer terror.
“Look!” said he, “at the great mountain over yonder; remove it,
and make in its place a level plain with fields and orchards and
gardens.” And he thought to himself when he had spoken, “Surely,
even the Demon cannot do that.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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