you get inside they will be all for buying your flitch, for meat is
scarce in Hell; but, mind you don't sell it unless you get the
hand-quern which stands behind the door for it. When you come out, I'll
teach you how to handle the quern, for it's good to grind almost
anything."

So the man with the flitch thanked the other for his good advice, and
gave a great knock at the Devil's door.

When he got in, everything was just as the old man had said. All the
devils, great and small, came swarming up to him like ants round an
anthill, and each tried to outbid the other for the flitch.

"Well!" said the man, "by rights, my old dame and I ought to have this
flitch for our Christmas dinner; but since you have all set your hearts
on it, I suppose I must give it up to you; but if I sell it at all, I'll
have for it the quern behind the door yonder."

At first the Devil wouldn't hear of such a bargain, and chaffed and
haggled with the man; but he stuck to what he said, and at last the
Devil had to part with his quern. When the man got out into the yard, he
asked the old woodcutter how he was to handle the quern; and after he
had learned how to use it, he thanked the old man and went off home as
fast as he could, but still the clock had struck twelve on Christmas eve
before he reached his own door.

"Wherever in the world have you been?" said his old dame; "here have I
sat hour after hour waiting and watching, without so much as two sticks
to lay together under the Christmas brose."