Page:Tales from the Fjeld.djvu/250

228 board in a gust of wind and caught the skipper by the throat.

"Stop, father!" said the skipper; "there's no need to be in such a hurry," and as he said that he began to defend himself and to loose the claws which Old Nick had stuck into him by the help of a marling-spike.

"Haven't you made a bargain that you would always keep the ship dry and tight?" asked the skipper. "Yes! your a pretty fellow; look down the pumps; there's the water standing seven feet high in the pipe. Pump, devil, pump! and pump the ship dry, and then you may take me and have me as soon and as long as you choose."



Old Nick was not so clever that he was not taken in; he pumped and strove, and the sweat ran down his back like a brook, so that you might have turned a mill at the end of his backbone, but he only pumped out of the North Sea and into the North Sea again. At last he