"It is only for this once, poor fellow! He will soon have done."
The fact was he could not say no, because the dwarf's third gift enabled the countryman to make every one grant whatever he asked.
Then the Jew said—
"Bind me fast, bind me fast, for pity's sake!"
The countryman seized his fiddle and struck up a merry tune, and at the first note judge, clerks, and jailer were set agoing. All began capering, and no one could hold the Jew. At the second note the hangman let his prisoner go and danced also, and by the time the first bar of the tune was played all were dancing together—judge, court, Jew, and all the people who had followed to look on. At first the thing went merrily and joyously enough, but when it had gone on a while, and there seemed to be no end of either playing or dancing, all began to cry out and beg the countryman to leave off. He stopped, however, not a whit the more for their begging, till the judge not only gave him his life, but paid him back the hundred crowns.
Then the countryman called the Jew, and said—
"Tell us now, you rogue, where you got that gold, or I shall play on for your amusement only."
"I stole it," replied the Jew, before all the people. "I acknowledge that I stole it, and that you earned it fairly."
Then the countryman stopped his fiddling, and left the Jew to take his place at the gallows.