GAFFER DEATH.
There was once a poor man who had twelve children, and he was obliged to labour day and night that he might earn food for them. When at length, as it so happened, a thirteenth came into the world, the poor man did not know how to help himself, so he ran out into the highway, determined to ask the first person he met to be godfather to the boy.
There came stalking up to him Death, who said—
"Take me for a godfather."
"Who are you?" asked the father.
"I am Death, who makes all equal," replied the stranger.
Then said the man—
"You are one of the right sort: you seize on rich and poor without distinction; you shall be the child's godfather."
Death answered—