that shall go for nothing if I can only get the pot."

"Well, if you must have it, you must," said Peik.

When the King got home he asked guests and made a feast, but the meat
was to be boiled in the new pot, and so he took it up and set it in the
middle of the floor. The guests thought the King had lost his wits, and
went about elbowing one another, and laughing at him. But he walked
round and round the pot and cackled and chattered, saying all in a
breath--

"Well, well! bide a bit, bide a bit! 'Twill boil in a minute."

But there was no boiling. So he saw that Peik had been out with his
fooling rods and had cheated him again, and now he would set off at once
and slay him.

When the King came, Peik stood out by the barn door. "Wouldn't it boil?"
he asked.

"No, it would not, and you shall smart for it," said the King, about to
unsheath his knife.

"I can well believe that," said Peik, "for you did not take the block,
too."

"I wish I thought," said the King, "you weren't telling me a pack of
lies."

"I tell you it's because of the block it stands on; it won't boil