Page:Popular Tales of the Germans (Volume 2).djvu/135

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NUMBER-NIP.
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nation to take vengeance upon him for her ſake, to play him ſome trick that ſhould bring him to ſhame, and thereby make him ſo tame, that his wife might ſet her toe on his eye at pleaſure. For this purpoſe he ſaddled the nimble eaſtern wind, mounted, and gallopped away over hill and dale, ſcouring like a ranger on the ſcout all the high and croſs roads leading to Bohemia: wherever he was aware of a traveller with a burden, he was at his heels in an inſtant, and examined his pack with the ſcrupulouſneſs of a tide-waiter. Luckily there paſſed along no tramper with glaſs wares, otherwiſe he would ſurely have been well trounced, without the ſmalleſt chance of retribution, even though he had not been the man Number-Nip was on the look-out for.

With meaſures ſo well concerted the heavy-laden Stephen had no chance of eſcaping. In the afternoon, a fine muſcular fellow, with an huge pack upon his ſhoulders came boldly ſtriding along. As

G 6
ſoon