‘Take care, or I will hang you all up again.’
The dead men, of course, could not hear, and remained silent while their few rags were burnt up.
Then he grew angry, and said: ‘If you won’t take care of yourselves, I can’t help you, and I won’t be burnt with you.’
So he hung them all up again in a row, and sat down by the fire and went to sleep again.
Next morning, the Man, wanting to get his fifty thalers, came to him and said: ‘Now do you know what shuddering means?’
‘No,’ he said; ‘how should I have learnt it? Those fellows up there never opened their mouths, and they were so stupid that they let the few poor rags they had about them burn.’
Then the Man saw that no thalers would be his that day, and he went away, saying: ‘Never in my life have I seen such a fellow as this.’
The Lad also went on his way, and again began saying to himself: ‘Oh, if only I could learn to shudder, if only I could learn to shudder.’
A Carter, walking behind him, heard this, and asked: ‘Who are you?’
‘I don’t know,’ answered the Youth.