About Demons.
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Ralston, William Ralston Shedden
“It’s fated I must, it seems! I’ll marry him, and then—God’s will be done!”
While the preparations are being made for the marriage, the soldier arrives at the end of his term of service to “the little devil” who had hired him, and from whom he had received his wealth in return for his abstinence and cleanliness. So he calls the “little devil,” and says, “Now turn me into a nice young man.”
Accordingly “the little devil cut him up into small pieces, threw them into a cauldron and set them on to boil. When they were done enough, he took them out and put them together again properly—bone to bone, joint to joint, vein to vein. Then he sprinkled them with the Waters of Life and Death—and up jumped the soldier, a finer lad than stories can describe, or pens portray!”
The story does not end here. When the “little devil” returns to the lake from which he came, “the grandfather” of the demons asks him—
“How about the soldier?”
“He has served his time honestly and honorably,” is the reply. “Never once did he shave, have his hair cut, wipe his nose, or change his clothes.” The “grandfather” flies into a passion.
“What! in fifteen whole years you couldn’t entrap a soldier! What, all that money wasted for nothing! What sort of a devil do you call yourself after that?”—and ordered him to be flung “into boiling pitch.”
“Stop, grandfather!” replies his grandchild. “I’ve booked two souls instead of the soldier’s one.”
“How’s that?”
“Why, this way. The soldier wanted to marry one of three princesses, but the elder one and the second one told their father that they’d sooner marry the devil than the soldier. So you see both of them are ours.”
After he had heard this explanation, “the grandfather acknowledged that the little devil was in the right, and ordered him to be set free. The imp, you see, understood his business.”