NOTE
The unfruitful district of Smaland and the lazy and servile people of Schonen (as retold and communicated by Dr. v. Sydow-Lund), are supposed to be creative efforts of the devil, at least so the Danes and Swedes were wont to say, and Selma Lagerlöf has repeated it after them with variants. But the people of Schonen lost no time in inventing a close relationship between the Smalanders and the devil.
XXIII
THE EVIL ONE AND KITTA GRAU
One day the devil met Kitta Grau:
"Where have you been, old man?" asked Kitta Grau, for she recognized him.
"Well," said the evil one, "I have been out on the farmstead where the newly wedded couple live. This is the third time I have tried to sow dissension between them; but they think so much of each other that it is a sheer impossibility."
"You talk like a real stupid. That is something I could bring about the very first time I went there," said Kitta Grau.
"If you can do that, you shall have a splendid pair of shoes," was the evil one's reply.