“Did you do anything to that cat?”
“I only chopped its head off and threw it away.”
“What!” the Devil cried angrily. “Didn’t you know that was my cat!”
“There now, master,” Erkki said soothingly, “you’re not going to lose your temper over a little thing like a dead cat, are you? Don’t forget our bargain!”
The Devil swallowed his anger and murmured:
“No, I’m not going to lose my temper but I must say that was no way to treat my cat.”
The next day the Devil ordered Erkki to go out to the forest and bring home some logs on the ox sledge.
“My black dog will go with you,” he said, “and as you come home you’re to take exactly the same course the dog takes.”
Well, Erkki went out to the forest and loaded the ox sledge with logs and then drove the oxen home following the Devil’s black dog. As they reached the Devil’s house the black dog jumped through a hole in the gate.
“I must follow master’s orders,” Erkki said to himself.