“Go to the mouth of the petsch,” said the other, “perhaps a spark will take hold of the soot.”
The other went up to the petsch and began again to strike. In the meantime Tim, looking full at him, gnashed his teeth violently. The thief, hearing something gnashing, struck harder than before, and, looking into the petsch by the light of the sparks, instantly fell to the ground, for seeing the face of Tim he took him for the devil and was so terrified that he could only utter with a broken voice:
Thereupon, Tim knocked violently upon the petsch, and hurled the brick at the other thief, who made for the door, but, striking his forehead against the lintel, he fell senseless. Tim then seizing one of their sticks began to belabour his brothers-in-law so lustily that they soon recovered their recollection and betook themselves to flight. Their legs trembled so with the fright they were in that they stumbled more than once; but Tim assisted them on their way by pelting them with bricks. Having driven them off, he took the swine and carried her home, where he arrived just as the day was beginning to break.
The first word which the thieves said on recovering their breath was about the wager with their brother-in-law.
“Now,” said they, “as the devil has run away with the swine, Tim cannot produce her, so we will force him to come and live with us again.”
Thereupon they set off straight for the house, because it was already getting light; but on their arrival they found that they had lost their wager, and that it was not the devil who had routed them in the deserted cottage, but their brother-in-law.
“Oh, you precious rascal!” said they, “you nearly killed us with terror.”
“There’s no help, brothers,” he replied, “you were thinking of taking two hundred roubles from me, but now you have to pay them to me.”
After some demur, he received the money from them, and began to live in a highly respectable manner.
LONDON: Printed for THOMAS J. WISE, Hampstead, N.W.