The gentleman had strange pointed ears, and a green light shone in his eyes.
“Smith,” began the stranger, “I know that poverty stares you in the face; you, who knew prosperity and plenty, must find life insupportable now that your larder is bare. You deserve a better fate. Solely out of compassion for you I have journeyed a hundred thousand miles. I bring you, if you will accept them at my hands, prosperity, riches, and happiness. Come”—so saying, the sombre man drew a piece of parchment from his pocket—“put your signature to this paper, and for seven years you will have as much iron and coal as you need to employ twenty workmen.”
OPEN THE DOOR, SMITH
Smith thought, “You are the Devil himself, or my name’s not Smith. It is not merely for the pleasure of possessing my signature that you will give me a seven years’ supply of iron and coal. You have something up your sleeve.”
In order to find out, he asked to read the document. There he found written in black and white, that after seven years the Devil would be master of Smith’s most treasured possession, his immortal soul.
However, our Smith was not unduly alarmed. “If I accept,” he thought, “I am saved and shall be able to laugh in the face of those who have despised me. If, on the other hand, I refuse, one day I shall kill myself in my despair, and I shall be in the
THE LITTLE BLACKSMITH WAS SEATED ON A LOW STOOL