"'Your heart is a human heart, a very simple human heart. I will put in its place a heart of stone, and then all your wishes shall turn to gold. Whatever you wish you shall have.'
"'Shall I be happy?'
"'Happy! Ha, ha, ha! are not people happy who have their wishes?'
"'Some are, and some are happy who give up their wishes and wills and desires."
"The woodman leaned his face upon his hands for a while, seemed in great doubt and distress. He thought of his wife, who used to say that contentment was happiness, and that one could be rich by having a few wants. Then he thought of the city. The vision rose before him like a Vanity Fair. He clasped his hands again, and struck them on his knees—chink, chink, chink—and said, 'I will do it.'
"Suddenly he felt a heart within him as cold as stone. He looked up to the giant, and saw that he held his own good, true heart in his hands.
"'I will put it away in a glass jar in my house,' he said, 'where I keep the hearts of the rich. Now, listen. You have only to strike your locked hands on your knees three times—chink, chink, chink—whenever you want for gold, and wish, and you will find your pockets full of money.'
"The woodman struck his palms on his knees and wished, then felt in his pockets. Sure enough, his pockets were full of gold.
"He thought of his wife, but his thought was a cold one; he did not love her any more. He thought of his little ones, but his thoughts were frozen; he did not care to meet them any more. He thought of his parents, but he only wished to meet them to excite their envy. The stream no longer charmed him, nor the flowers, nor the birds, nor anything.
"'I will dissemble,' he said. He hurried home. His wife met him at the door. He kissed her. She started back, and said: