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 sages which his neighbors and friends would help him eat. The hams he would hang in the chimney to smoke.

But when he tried to slaughter the animal, the blow of his axe had no effect. He struck the hog on the head and, to be sure, it rolled over on the ground. But when he stopped to cut the throat, the creature jumped up and with a grunt went scampering off. Before the blacksmith could recover from his surprise, the hog had disappeared.

Next he tried to kill a goose. He had a fat one which he had been stuffing for the village fair.

“Since those sausages have escaped me,” he said, “I’ll have to be satisfied with roast goose.”

But when he tried to cut the goose’s throat, the knife drew no blood. In his surprise he loosened his hold and the goose slipped from his hands and went cackling off after the hog.

“What’s come over things today?” the blacksmith asked himself. “It seems I’m not to have sausage or roast goose. I suppose I’ll have to be satisfied with a pair of pigeons.”

He went out to the pigeon-house and caught two pigeons. He put them on the chopping-block and with one mighty blow of his ax cut off both their heads.