All the
hillfolk, great and small, came swarming up to him, like ants around an
ant-hill, and each tried to outbid the other for the bacon.
"Well!" said the man, "by rights, my old dame and I ought to have this
bacon for our Christmas dinner; but, since you have all set your hearts
on it, I suppose I must give it up to you. Now, if I sell it at all,
I'll have for it that mill behind the door yonder."
At first the hillfolk wouldn't hear of such a bargain and higgled and
haggled with the man, but he stuck to what he said, and at last they
gave up the mill for the bacon.
When the man got out of the cave and into the woods again, he met the
same old beggar and asked him how to handle the mill. 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 porridge."
"Oh!" said the man, "I could not 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 mill on the table, and bade it first of all grind lights,
then a tablecloth, then meat, then ale, and so on till they had
everything that was nice for Christmas fare.
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