The man passed him without responding. Then he looked back and asked Peter why he looked so discouraged.
"I have reason to look discouraged," Peter said. "Everywhere I ask for work they tell me to go to the Devil. If I knew the way to hell I think I'd take their advice and go."
The stranger smiled.
"But if you saw the Devil, don't you think you'd be afraid of him?"
Peter shook his head.
"He can't be any worse than my stepmother, or the farmer, or the bailiff."
The man suddenly turned black.
"Look at me!" he cried. "Here I am, the very person we've been talking about!"
With no show of fear Peter looked the Devil up and down.
Then the Devil said that if Peter still wished to enter his service, he would take him. The work would be light, the Devil said, and the hours good, and if Peter did as he was told he would have a pleasant time. The Devil promised to keep him seven years and at the end of that time to make him a handsome present and set him free.