solemnly--"remember, that by no hand but yours can it be controlled.
Guard it carefully, for the day you part with it your portion shall be
ashes, and _mine_ annihilation."

When Körg dared lift his eyes the elf had disappeared.

Rahel sat at home with the children, weeping. She knew well the heart of
her brother Klaus, and how vain would be Körg's last effort to save them
from starvation. A step sounded on the path without. Rahel and the babes
stopped to listen. It was not dull and heavy as they had expected, but
blithe as the jingle of sleigh-bells, and, in a second, Körg burst in
upon them, dimpling all over with merry laughter. Rahel regarded him,
amazed.

"You bring no bread to our starving babes, and yet you laugh," she said.
"Oh, Körg! Körg! trouble has made you mad!"

Still chuckling he slipped the wonder-mill from beneath his coat and
said, softly:

"Hush, Rahel! A _geist_ has been with me to-night. I have brought
endless fortune from the depths of the sea." And, plump in the eyes of
his astonished wife, he began turning out loaves and puddings with such
a gusto that the room was soon filled, and Rahel fain to implore him to
cease his elfish work.

From that night, just as the little man had said, riches unlimited came
to the house of Körg. No treasure too great for the mill to produce;
and, though the woodchopper strove hard at secrecy, its fame spread far
and wide from the mountains back to the sea, and folks flocked by