Page:Popular Tales of the Germans (Volume 2).djvu/186

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182
LEGENDS CONCERNING

‘once. Truly, ſir, could you but feel human neceſſities, you would acknowledge it to be a very hard matter for thoſe to be honeſt who are in want of all things: when, for inſtance, you are pinched by hunger, and have not a maravedi in your pocket, it is an heroic pitch of virtue to forbear ſtealing a roll from the ſtock of bread which ſome Crœſus of a baker expoſes at his window—for neceſſity, as the proverb ſays, has no law.’

‘Get thee gone, vagabond!’ exclaimed the Gnome, when Curlypate had ended, ‘as far as feet can carry thee, and aſcend the gallows, the ſummit of thy fortune!’ Upon this he diſcharged his priſoner with a luſty kick.—The latter rejoiced at eſcaping ſo eaſily, and applauded his powers of perſuaſion, which, as he ſuppoſed, had for this time extricated him from a very tickliſh ſituation. He made a forced march to get out of reach of the rigorous ſovereign of the mountain, and in

his