[Illustration:  Hans Hecklemann and the Old Wise-Woman]

Then Hans slipped the little sack into his pocket, and set out for the overturned stone cross where the three roads meet.  When he had come to the place, he looked here and there, and this way and that, but for a long time he could see nothing at all.  At last, after much looking, he beheld a little black beetle running hither and thither on the stone.  “I wonder,” said Hans, “if this can be my luck.”

So saying, he caught the little beetle betwixt his finger and thumb, but very carefully, for he could not tell whether or not it might bite him.  The beetle stuck to the stone as though it had been glued there, but, at last, Hans pulled it away; then—­lo! it was not a beetle that he held in his hand, but a little manikin about as long as your thumb and as black as ink.  Hans Hecklemann was so frightened that he nearly dropped it, for it kicked and screeched and rolled its red eyes in a very ugly way as he held it.  However, he popped it into the little sack and pulled the strings tight, and there it was, safe and sound.

That is what Hans Hecklemann’s luck was like.

So Hans having his luck secure in the little sack began to bargain with it.  “What will you do for me if I let you out?” said he.

“Nothing at all,” snarled his luck.

“Very well,” said Hans, “we will see about that.”

So he carried it home with him, and threw sack and all into a nasty pot where Catherine cast the scrapings of the dishes—­the fat and what not that she boiled down into soap now and then.  There he left his luck to stay until the next day, and then he went to it again.  “What will you do for me if I will let you out now?” said he.

“Nothing at all,” snarled his luck.

“Very well,” said Hans, “we will see about that.”  So he let him stay where he was for another day.  And so the fiddle played; every day Hans Hecklemann went to his luck and asked it what it would give him if he would let it out, and every day his luck said nothing; and so a week or more passed.

[Illustration:  Hans finds his Luck]

At last Hans’s luck gave in.

“See, Hans,” it said one morning; “if you will let me out of this nasty pickle I will give you a thousand thalers.”

“Ah no!” said Hans.  “Thalers are only thalers, as my good father used to say.  They melt away like snow, and then nothing is left of them.  I will trust no such luck as that!”

“I will give you two thousand thalers,” said his luck.

[Illustration:  Hans Hecklemann ploughs for Gold]

“Ah no!” said Hans; “two thousand thalers are only twice one thousand thalers.  I will trust no such luck as that, either!”

“Then what will you take to let me out, Hans Hecklemann?” said his luck.

“Look,” said Hans; “yonder stands my old plough.  Now, if you will give me to find a golden noble at the end of every furrow that I strike with it I will let you out.  If not—­why, then, into the soap you go.”