John went away, and in the mouth of night he went into a barn where there were twelve men threshing. ‘Oh! lads,’ said John, ‘here’s for you my old abersgaic; and take a while threshing it, it is so hard that it is taking the skin off my back.’
They took as much as two hours of the watch at the abersgaic with the twelve flails; and at last, every blow they gave it, it would leap to the top of the barn, and it was casting one of the threshers now and again on his back. When they saw that, they asked him to be out of that, himself and his abersgaic; they would not believe but that the Mischief was in it.
Then he went on his journey, and he went into a smithy where there were twelve smiths striking their great hammers. ‘Here’s for you, lads, an old abersgaic, and I will give you half-a-crown, and take a while at it with the twelve great [[282]]hammers; it is so hard that it is taking the skin off my back.’
But that was fun for the smiths; it was good sport for them, the abersgaic of the soldier. But every sgaile it got, it was bounding to the top of the smithy. ‘Go out of this, thyself and it,’ said they; ‘we will not believe that the Bramman[6] is in it.’
So then John went on, and the Mischief on his back; and he reached a great furnace that was there.
‘Where art thou going now, John?’ said the Mischief.
‘Patience a little, and thou’lt see that,’ said John.
‘Let me out,’ said the Mischief, ‘and I will never put trouble on thee in this world.’
‘Nor in the next?’ said John.
‘That’s it,’ said the Mischief.