"Yes, he has just gone out; he is a giant again!"
The good wife was following her husband, and wailing.
"Now we will have to live him down again; oh, woe, woe; this is an evil night; we will have to live him down again."
"Stranger," said the collier, "these things may seem strange to you, but when we came here our lives were haunted by the red giant that has gone out into the wood. We knew not what to do, but we sent for the old pastor, and he said: 'Good forester, you can live him down. Think only good thoughts, speak only good words, do only good deeds, and he will become smaller and smaller, less and less. Harbor no evil-minded person in your house. You may one day live him out of sight, and change him angel.' We had almost lived him down!"
"But what was he?" asked the merchant.
"He was our Visible Temptation."
In the morning the merchant hurried away.
Ten years passed. The merchant chanced to travel through the same forest again. Night was coming on, and he recalled the collier's house.
He went to it again. He knocked and an old man met him at the door.