The Lad and the Devil
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hammer he had, laid the nut on the anvil, and gave it a blow, but it didn't break. So he took a somewhat bigger hammer, but that wasn't heavy enough either; then he took a still bigger one, but no,—the nut would not break. This made the smith angry, and he seized the big sledge-hammer. "I shall soon make bits of you," he said, and he gave the nut such a blow that it went into a thousand pieces, and sent half the roof of the smithy flying in the air. Such a crash! just as if the hut were tumbling together.
"I think the devil was in the nut," said the smith.
"So he was," said the lad.
