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18
Slavonic Fairy Tales.
up my potato hole with gold; then bring to my hut a keg of brandy and three sides of bacon."
"I will do it all," answered the demon; "but first take the knife out of the ground. It hurts me cruelly."
"No!" cried the peasant; "first do what I tell you."
The obedient spirit did all that was demanded of him. Some time after this the young peasant fell sick. As he was about to die, his friends, who were gathered round him, saw the demon standing at the head of the bed waiting for his soul. They all lamented his miserable fate, and his godfather said,—
"If, instead of asking for money, he had shot the demon with a silver button, he would have lived to be an old man, and have saved his soul."
