Once on a time there lived in a village a wood-cutter so poor, that he had only his hatchet with which to gain bread for his wife and children.
"What am I to do?" said he, one day. "I am worn out with fatigue, my wife and children have nothing to eat, and I have no longer strength to hold my hatchet to earn even bitter black bread for my family. Ah! it is very bad luck for the poor when they are brought into this world."
While he was lamenting in this way, a voice called to him in a compassionate tone, "What are you complaining of?"
"Am I not likely to complain, when I have no food?" said he.
"Go home," said the voice, "dig up the earth in the corner of your garden, and you will find under a dead branch a treasure."
When the wood-cutter heard this he threw himself on his knees, and cried out, "Master, how do you call yourself? who are you with so kind a heart?"
"My name is Merlin," said the voice.
"Ah, master, God will bless you if you will come to my aid, and save a poor family from destitution."
"Go quickly," said the voice, "and in a year's time come back here, and give me an account of what you have done with the money you will find in the corner of the garden."
"Master, I will come in a year's time, or every day if you command me."