affairs; nobody wanted to wear anybody else's
shoes; swords grew rusty, prisons were empty;
it was a golden time, with only one misery in it:
the lawyers all died of hunger and holding their
tongues.

But every good thing in the world comes to
an end. The soldier Boldwit having leave to
return for a short time to his own home, which
was the village in which Aunt Holofernes dwelt,
was not a man to lengthen his way by going
round about a mountain. If it lay in his way,
he marched straight over it, and so he came to
the peak where Aunt Holofernes had left her
bottled son-in-law, expecting his release. The
soldier was surprised to find a bottle there with
a live thing jumping about in it, for the poor
devil, with long fasting and drying in the sun,
looked like a dry, wrinkled prune. "What
queer sort of beetle can this be?" said Boldwit.
"I am a respectable and well-deserving father,"
said the prisoner, "Father of Mischief and stepson
to Aunt Holofernes, the most treacherous of
stepmothers. Valiant soldier, let me out, and
I will give you the first thing you wish."

"The first thing I wish for is discharge from
the army," replied Boldwit, instantly.

"You shall have it. Now uncork me."

Boldwit raised the cork a little, and up came
a mephitic smell that made him sneeze. So he
screwed down the cork again, and sent it further
in with a stout thump of his fist, whereat
the prisoner twisted and screamed, "What are
you doing, wretched worm, more faithless and
cruel than my stepmother?"

"It has come to my mind," said Boldwit,
"that I have a right to make one other condition
if I do you this great service. You must
pay me for your release four dollars a day."

"Miser! I have no money."

"Then stay in the bottle," said the soldier,
and began to march down hill; but the prisoner
cried after him, "Wait, wait. If I cannot give
you money I can put you in the way of getting
it. But let me out! let me out!"

"Easy!" the soldier answered. "Nobody is
here to hurry us; nobody in the world wants
you. If you come out, you must also understand
that I hold you fast by the tail till
you have kept your promise. If not, you
stop where you are." "Tail or nose, dear
friend, tail or nose!" shouted the prisoner. But
he whispered to himself, "I'll pay you out, my
friend."

So the bottle was uncorked, and the stepson
of dame Holofernes crept out slowly as a chick
from the shell, head first, then arms, then body;
but when the tail came out, Boldwit seized it,
however much the imp tried to tuck it in
between his legs.

When the freed bit of mischief had stretched
himself and rubbed his joints a little, they set
forth, he hopping before like a frog, and Boldwit,
who marched stoutly after him, holding tight by
his tail. So they came to the king's court, and
then the Father of Mischief said to his liberator:
"I will get inside the princess's body, and
when the king her father, who loves her beyond
measure, sees what mischief is going on inside
her, so that no doctor can do her any good, you
shall come and cure her for a pension of four
dollars a day. So we shall be quits."

All happened so; but when all was done,
Mischief was wrong in thinking he could go his
ways. Boldwit held him fast by the tail again, and
said: "On full consideration, sir, four dollars
a day is beggarly reward for what I have
done to serve you. Find a way of being more
liberal, and so get yourself a little credit in the
world."

The tail being in firm grip, there was only one
way of getting free; but "I will play you a
trick, young soldier," said Mischief to himself.
"Come along, then," he said, aloud. "There is
another being, daughter at the court of Naples;
we will go through the same business with her,
and you shall ask her hand and half the throne
for curing her."

So it was done; but when the soldier made his
conditions, the King of Naples made also his,
namely, that the adventurer should be hanged
if at the end of three days he had not made a
complete cure. Now Mischief heard that, and
behaved accordingly. He jumped for joy at his
prospects, and every jump inside her made the
princess twist in her bed. She was very bad on
the first day, worse on the second day, and so
bad that she shrieked for the doctor to be sent
for on the third day. Boldwit saw what his
friend proposed to himself, but was not a man
to lose his head over a difficulty. Directly
opposite the palace gate his majesty had already
built the gallows. When, on the third day,
Boldwit entered the princess's chamber, she
screamed, "Throw the quack out of window!"
But he said to the king, with professional
gravity, "All my resources are not yet exhausted.
Will your majesty have patience with me for a
few more minutes?" Upon that he left the
chamber, and in the princess's name ordered all
the bells in the town to be set ringing.

When he returned to the princess's chamber,
the Mischief, who is a hater of bell-ringing, and,
besides, is at all times very much plagued with
curiosity, asked what saint they were ringing
for.

"They ring," replied the soldier, pan