HANS HUMDRUM
they arrived, Peter at once went to bed and slept soundly.
At six o'clock next morning the cock began to crow. Peter was dressed and at work in the barn before long threshing wheat, according to directions given by his Master on the previous night. He worked an hour, and still another, but no one called him to the breakfast-table. At length he laid down his flail and walked across the yard into his Master's dwelling-room. The man was sitting at the end of the table, but no breakfast was to be seen anywhere. Peter's mistress was, if possible, still more ugly than her husband; she was cross-eyed, and two long teeth reached far out of her mouth. A great many small, dirty children were crawling about everywhere; they fought one another, and yelled at the top of their voices. It looked as if they had already had their breakfast, but there seemed to be none for him.
"Are you hungry, Peter?" asked the farmer, winking and blinking and twinkling at him with his small eyes, until they almost seemed to disappear within the lids. "Yes," answered Peter, "of course I am hungry! I had no supper last night and no breakfast this morning, and I may well need it, as I have been threshing for over two hours." "Look at the writing above the door, Peter," continued the troll (for he was, of course, a troll, and no real farmer); "look above the door and see what is written there!" Peter looked, and read the following words:
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