"What you will you have only to ask," said the little one, "silver and
gold, and precious stones, and costly furniture--all shall be thine in
less than an instant."

"Silver and gold, and precious stones, and all such glittering fine
things, will I none," said the farmer. "They have turned the heart and
broken the neck of many a one before now, and few are they whose lives
they make happy. I know that you are handy smiths, and have many a
strange thing with you that other smiths know nothing about. So, come
now, swear to me that you will make me an iron plough, such that the
smallest foal may be able to draw it without being tired, and then run
off with you as fast as your legs will carry you." So the black swore,
and then the farmer cried out--

"Now, in the name of God. There you are at liberty," and the little one
vanished like lightning.

Next morning, before the sun was up, there stood in the farmer's yard a
new iron plough, and he yoked his dog, Water, to it; and though it was
of the size of an ordinary plough, Water drew it with ease through the
heaviest clayland, and it tore up prodigious furrows. The farmer used
this plough for many years, and the smallest foal or the leanest little
horse could draw it through the ground, to the amazement of every one
who beheld it, without turning a single hair.

This plough made a rich man of the farmer, for it cost him no
horse-flesh, and he led a cheerful and contented life by means of it.

Hereby we may see that moderation holds out the longest, and that it is
not good to covet too much.