with me to the new town, on business? you shall be well paid for your trouble.”
“Why not?” returned the old veteran, “I have a wooden leg that is never tired; and I can walk at a pretty smart pace when it suits me. Only wait a little, till the little grey man comes; he never fails to cross the bridge towards evening.”
“There is no need to wait for the little grey man,” said Frank: “what can you have to do with him?”
“What!” repeated the soldier, “why, the grey man brings me a silver groat every night of his life, from whom I neither know nor care. Sometimes I begin to suspect, that it must be the evil one, who wants me to barter my soul for money. Be that as it may, I know nothing of it, so it is nothing to me. I have closed no such bargain, and I shall not keep it.”
“I fancy not,” said our hero, smiling; “but if you will now follow me, you shall have the silver groat.” So the cripple followed him through a number of streets, into a remote part of the town near the rampart. There he stopped before a small house, just newly built, and knocked at the door. On its being opened, Frank walked in, and said to the old man, “My friend, thou hast once bestowed upon me a very pleasant evening, and it is right that I should cheer up the evening of thy life. Behold
