So he cut up the oxen into small pieces and put them through the same hole in the gate; he chopped up the logs and pitched them through the hole; and he broke up the sledge into pieces small enough to follow the oxen and the logs. Then he crept through the hole himself.
That night at supper the Devil said:
“Well, Erkki, did you come home the way I told you?”
“Yes, master, I followed the black dog.”
“What!” the Devil cried. “Do you mean to say you brought the oxen and the sledge and the logs through the hole in the gate?”
“Yes, master, that’s what I did.”
“But you couldn’t!” the Devil declared.
“Well, master,” Erkki said, “just go out and see.”
The Devil went outside and when he saw the method by which Erkki had carried out his orders he was furious. But Erkki quieted him by saying:
“There now, master, you’re not going to lose your temper over a trifling matter like this, are you? Remember our bargain!”