Page:Lays and Legends of Germany (1834).djvu/250

 his job, and screwed his leg on again, for while at work he had been standing on one leg, after the fashion of the storks; gathered together all he had cut into one bundle, and placed it on his shoulder, and off he started with it, in spite of every thing, towards his own favourite retreat, heedless of the tears and lamentations of his master.

On this occasion, Rubezahl did not appear in the character of a sportive or mischievous spirit, but as an avenger of injustice. For his employer had induced a number of poor men to bring wood to his home, upon the promise of paying them wages, which wages, however, this word-forfeiting man had never paid them. Rubezahl, however, laid at the door of each of these poor men, so much of the wood as he had carried, and thus brought the business to a proper termination.





It once happened, that a messenger vexed or put some trick upon Rubezahl, who thereupon revenged himself, in the following manner, and so whetted out the notch.

The messenger, in one of his journeys over the mountains, entered a hotel to refresh himself, and placed his spear as usual behind the door: no sooner had he done