"
"Yes, father, as you wish; but if you desire nothing else, I shall
esteem that very lightly."
As soon as day broke the youth put his fifty dollars into a knapsack and
went out upon the high road, saying continually, "Oh, if I could but
shiver!"
Presently a man came up, who heard the boy talking to himself; and, as
they we're just passing the place where the gallows stood, the man said,
"Do you see? There is the tree where seven fellows have married the
hempen maid, and now swing to and fro. Sit yourself down there and wait
till midnight, and then you will know what it is to shiver!"
"Oh, if that be all," answered the boy, "I can very easily do that! But
if I learn so speedily what shivering is, then you shall have my fifty
dollars if you come again in the morning."
Then the boy went to the gallows, sat down, and waited for evening, and
as he felt cold he made a fire. But about midnight the wind blew so
sharp, that in spite of the fire he could not keep himself warm. The
wind blew the bodies against one another, so that they swung backward
and forward, and he thought, "If I am cold here below by the fire, how
must they freeze above!" So his compassion was excited, and, contriving
a ladder, he mounted, and, unloosening them one after another, he
brought down all seven. Then he poked and blew the fire, and set them
round that they might warm themselves; but as they sat still without
moving their clothing caught fire.
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