Page:The shoemaker's apron (1920).djvu/251

 “Give me the part that grows above the ground.”

Thereupon Gentle Dora had the whole farm planted in potatoes and beets and carrots. When the harvest came she gave the devil the tops and herself took all the tubers.

That winter the poor devil would have starved if the neighbors hadn’t taken pity on him and fed him.

In the spring Gentle Dora asked him what part of the new crop he wanted.

“This time,” he said, “give me the part that grows under the ground.”

Gentle Dora agreed and then planted the entire farm in millet and rye and poppy seed. At the harvest she took all the grain as her share and told the devil that the worthless roots belonged to him.

“What chance has a poor devil with such a woman?” he thought to himself bitterly.

Discouraged and unhappy he went out to the roadside where he sat down. The troubles of domestic life pressed upon him so heavily that soon he began to cry.

Presently a journeyman shoemaker came by and said to him:

“Comrade, what ails you?”