"Not a great deal," returned the soldier, "for you've plenty of money. If you'll fill my gauntlet, I shall be quite satisfied."
"I've as much as that in my pocket," said the Devil, and filled the glove to the brim.
The soldier reflected, and said, "I really don't know where to put you. Stop! just creep into my knapsack; you'll be safer there than anywhere."
"That'll do! But your knapsack has three straps. Don't buckle the third, or it might be bad for me."[34]
"All right! Squeeze in."
So the Devil crept into the knapsack.
But the soldier was one of those people who don't keep their word as they ought. As soon as the devil was in the knapsack, he buckled all three straps tight, saying, "A soldier mustn't go through the town with loose straps. Do you think that the corporal would excuse me on your account if he saw me so untidy?"
But the soldier had a friend on the other side of the town who was a smith. He marched straight off to him with the Devil in his knapsack, and said, "Old friend, please beat my knapsack soft on your anvil. The corporal always scolds me because he says that my knapsack is as hard and angular as a dry bast shoe."
"Pitch it on the anvil," said the smith.
And he hammered away at the knapsack till the wool flew from the hide.