Long long ago, in the age before television, lived a poor husband and wife in a small cottage. Despite their lack of money their farm provided enough for them to live on. However one day they woke up to find the goats had all run away, the hay and the barn was burned, a fox had caught all the chickens, and the pig had eaten all the vegetables in the garden and then died of overeating. Because they now no longer had anything to live on decided that they would have to leave their home and go out to find work with other people.
“Ah Peter,” said the wife, “How happy we have been in our little cottage, and now we may never come back to it again.”
“Let us wait and see how things go Lisa,” said Peter “It’s possible we might earn enough money quickly enough to rebuild the farm and come back to it.”
They then left and started walking down the highway towards the city. They had not gone very far when they passed the gate of one of their neighbors who was rich and owned a large manor house. Their neighbor was riding down from his home to the highway and seeing him coming Lisa opened the gate for him so he would not need to get down off his horse.
“Thank you miss,” the gentleman said.
He stopped his horse and opened up a small moneybag. He took out a copper coin that was equivalent to about a dollar in today’s money and tossed it to her.
Lisa caught the coin, curtseyed and thanked him as he quickly rode his horse down the highway away from the city. As Lisa and Peter were about to continue their way to the city she noticed a gold coin worth about a hundred dollars in today’s money laying where the gentleman had stopped and opened the moneybag. She picked it up and showed it to Peter.
“He must have accidentally dropped it when he gave you the copper coin,” Peter said.
“We need to return it,” Lisa said.
They tried shouting to the gentleman however he was traveling too fast on his horse and he didn’t hear them.
Peter took the coin from Lisa and said “I’ll hold onto the coin so we can give it back when he comes home again.”
“But he may be gone for a long time,” Lisa said “We should go up to the manor house and give it to someone there.”
“But it’s a really long walk to his house and there may not be anyone to give it too anyways. We need to hurry if we are going to make it to the city before night as it is. We’ll return it to him later.”
Peter then put the gold coin in his pocket and as he did they suddenly heard hoarse laughter and turning around saw a face grinning at them from a nearby bush briefly before it vanished.
“Did you see that?” Lisa asked “It looked like the Devil!”
“I saw something,” Peter said “But I’m not certain what.”
They continued on their way and hadn’t walked more then a mile when they came upon a peddler who was resting by the side of the road. As they came up to him he brought out his goods and beckoned to them. He had many things for sale including some very fine tools.
“What are you doing Peter?” Lisa asked “We don’t have any money to buy any of this?”
Peter reached into his pocket and brought out the gold coin. Lisa turned pale with fear.
“Are you crazy Peter?” she whispered “that isn’t ours.”
“I will only borrow it, with these tools I will be able to earn money in the city much faster then I could without them. I will first earn a new gold coin to repay the gentleman and then earn more money to buy new animals so we can return back to our farm.”
Lisa wouldn’t hear it and dragged Peter away from the peddler. The peddler waved his wares and cried that Peter could have them at such a reasonable cost. When they were a good distance off, Lisa loosened her hold on Peter.
“Oh how scared I was,” she said “That peddler resembled that face I saw in the bushes, I think it was the Devil himself.”
“You’re being silly,” declared Peter angrily
They continued on their way and soon encountered a white-haired man who drove some cows, goats, chickens, and pigs before him. He kept jumping from one side of the road to the other guiding them with a stick to keep them together.
“Ah, how tired I am,” He said to the couple “all day I have been going around the market buying and selling animals. I have earned a lot of money doing this but now I am so worn out that I am willing to sell my remaining flock for a ducat.”
Peter at once put his hand in his pocket to take out the gold piece; but Lisa grabbed him by the arm.
“Don’t do it Peter,” she whispered.
“Are you mad woman?” Peter retorted “We could return back to our farm today. We can easily sell the cows for enough to replace the ducat we will have borrowed and the rest of the animals will replace those we have lost.”
“But look at his face, it is almost the same as the peddler and the face in the bushes.” Lisa said.
“This man is much older, with white hair, the peddler was much younger” Peter said. “and I’m still not certain if I saw anything in the bushes.”
Lisa tried pulling Peter away again but Peter would not be dragged away this time. Lisa then picked up some pine cones and threw them at the animals so they were frightened away and ran off the road. The old man then ran after the animals.
“I can’t believe you did that” Peter raged. “That poor old man now has to work even harder to collect him animals.”
Lisa just continued on her way to the city and Peter soon followed behind.
They hadn’t traveled even half a mile when they met an odd little man. He had all different kinds of watches on him. They were dangling from his breast, back, arms, shoulders, everywhere it was possible to place a watch he had one. As they drew near they could hear the sound of them ticking like hundreds of small hearts beating loudly.
“Watches for sale! Watches for sale! Fine watches of gold and silver. Come and buy!” he announced holding out a few to Peter.
“Can you not see he looks like the others?” Lisa whispered “I’m certain this man is the Devil come to trick us!”
“Oh be quiet, he’s just an ordinary merchant.”
“Buy my whole lot for a single gold coin” said the stranger “and you will be a rich man.”
It was a very generous offer, thought Peter. If he sold them all he would earn back the gold coin many times over.
“Stop, I’ll take that offer,” Peter said.
Lisa begged, pleaded, pushed and pulled but was unable to get Peter away from the watch merchant. The merchant gave Peter the coat with all the watches dangling on it. As soon as the merchant had the coin in his hand he broke into such a horrible laughter that Lisa shrieked with fright and covered her eyes. When she looked again the merchant had vanished completely. But Peter had not noticed anything as he was only looking at his watches.
“You can go back to our cottage now,” he said to Lisa “and wait there until I come back with all the money I shall earn selling these watches.”
So he left her standing on the highway as he walked with long strides to the city for he was anxious to be rich.
Some time after leaving Lisa it began to rain. Peter turned the coat inside out so the watches would not get wet, and settled himself comfortably under a tree. But the rain was so heavy that in spite of this he was soaked through; and then when the sky cleared, and he turned the coat right side out, he saw something which filled him with horror. All the watches had not only stopped ticking, but they were all flat and squashed. When he touched them he found they were nothing but paste and not even made out of metal.
At the same time he heard laughter behind him and when he turned around he saw the Devil in his true form. Really taking a good look he did see now the resemblance with the peddler, the old man, and the watch merchant and realized they were all one and the same.
“Where is the coin now you thieving knave?” shrieked the Devil and laughed so loud the sound echoed through the mountains.
Peter was so furious he took a heavy stick and threw it at the Devil but the stick went right through him.
The Devil continued to laugh and taunt Peter “Thieving knave! Thieving knave!”
Peter picked up another stick and ran after him. The Devil ran away shrieking and laughing the whole time until Peter collapsed from exhaustion due to the long chase.
He picked himself up and realized he was a fool to think he could hurt the Devil with a simple stick. Shamefaced he continued to the city and sought work wherever he could get it. He drudged and went hungry week after week and month after month.
He starved and froze in order to be able to put more and more money into his moneybag until at last he was able to go to a money changer and receive a single gold coin in exchange for all the copper money he had worked so hard for. He then traveled down the highway back to his old cottage.
As he traveled down the highway the Devil appeared and grinned at him.
“Good day Mr. Thief! Good day Mr. Thief!” he taunted.
“I say you are a thief,” Peter said “and you will not steal my soul.”
Ignoring the Devil he walked down the highway until he reached the gate leading to the house of the gentleman who had dropped the gold coin.
“What are you doing?” The Devil asked “You could restore your farm with that coin. If you give it back you’ll have to go through all that work again. You probably won’t ever see Lisa again.”
“If I had returned the coin immediately like Lisa suggested then I would have enough to restore our farm now without stealing from our neighbor.” Peter said “I am not making that mistake again.”
Peter opened the gate and began walking up to the manor house with the Devil vainly remaining at the gate telling him to not be a fool and come back.
As he came approached the manor house he was surprised to see Lisa walking down towards the gate from the house. She looked tired, thin, and haggard but on seeing Peter brightened up and ran to him joyously.
“You came back!” She exclaimed “I thought you had forgotten me.”
“But I return as poor as when I went away,” said Peter.
“Have you brought nothing home?” she asked worriedly.
“Yes, the gold coin, naturally. But it is not mine and am actually on my way to return it just now.”
Lisa’s eyes shone “You don’t need to do that, with the copper piece we were given I bought some needle and thread and have been working as a seamstress this entire time. I am just now on my way home from returning the gold coin.
Peter now understood why she was so pale and thin. She also had toiled and drudged to save up enough to return the gold coin they owed.
He measured her with his eyes and said “Do you know, Lisa, what is my opinion of you? It is that you are best, bravest, and most honest person upon God’s green earth.”
And after kissing they went out and bought all they could with the gold coin, now their own by right, living peacefully on their own farm.