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 From the start she worked him like a slave from morning till night, scolded him incessantly, and didn’t give him half enough to eat. The poor fellow grew thin and almost pale. The months went by and each new month was harder to live through than the one before.

“I can do a day’s work with the best of them,” the devil thought to himself, “but there is no one, either man or devil, who can stand this woman’s everlasting nagging. Oh dear, oh dear, what shall I do?”

Now Gentle Dora was looking for a husband. She had already had five husbands all of whom she had nagged to death. On account of this record every bachelor and widower in the village was a little shy of proposing himself as a sixth husband.

The devil, who as I have told you was a simple fellow, finally decided that it would be a mighty clever thing for him to marry Gentle Dora. He felt sure that once he was her husband she would give him less work and more food. So he proposed to her.

The rich widow didn’t much fancy his black face, but on the other hand she wanted a husband and so, as there was no other prospect in sight, she accepted him.