"Oh!" said the man, "I couldn't get back before, for I had to go a long
way first for one thing, and then for another; but now you shall see
what you shall see."

So he put the quern on the table, and bade it first of all grind lights,
then a table-cloth, then meat, then ale, and so on till they had got
everything that was nice for Christmas fare. He had only to speak the
word, and the quern ground out what he wanted. The old dame stood by
blessing her stars, and kept on asking where he had got this wonderful
quern, but he wouldn't tell her.

"It's all one where I got it from; you see the quern is a good one, and
the mill-stream never freezes, that's enough."

So he ground meat and drink and dainties enough to last out till Twelfth
Day, and on the third day he asked all his friends and kin to his house,
and gave a great feast. Now, when his rich brother saw all that was on
the table, and all that was behind in the larder, he grew quite spiteful
and wild, for he couldn't bear that his brother should have anything.

"Twas only on Christmas eve," he said to the rest, "he was in such
straits that he came and asked for a morsel of food in God's name, and
now he gives a feast as if he were count or king;" and he turned to his
brother and said:

"But whence, in Hell's name, have you got all this wealth?"

"From behind the door," answered the owner of the quern, for he didn't
care to let the cat out of the bag. But later on in the evening, when he
had got a drop too much, he could keep his secret no longer, and brought