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 him, and welcomed him with great glee. Frank kindly returned the old man’s greeting, and said: “What think you friend, could you go with me to the new town, on business? I would reward you well for your trouble.”

“Why not?” replied the old soldier, “though I have a wooden leg, it never gets tired, and I can still walk pretty briskly. But wait a little, till the little gray man is passed, who never fails to cross the bridge towards evening.”

“And why wait for the gray man?” asked Frank, “what have you to do with him?”

“The grey man brings me every night a silver groat, from whom I know not, nor care to ask. Sometimes I think that it is perhaps the evil one, who means me to barter my soul for the money. But be he who he may, that is nothing to me. I have not closed any such bargain and therefore need not keep it.”

“I think not;” replied Frank, smiling, “but the gray man may be a cheat; and if you will now follow me, the silver groat shall not be wanting.”

The cripple accordingly followed his con-