"It's all one where I got it from; you see the quern is a good one, and
the mill-stream never freezes, that's enough."
So he ground meat and drink and dainties enough to last out till Twelfth
Day, and on the third day he asked all his friends and kin to his house,
and gave a great feast. Now, when his rich brother saw all that was on
the table, and all that was behind in the larder, he grew quite spiteful
and wild, for he couldn't bear that his brother should have anything.
"Twas only on Christmas eve," he said to the rest, "he was in such
straits that he came and asked for a morsel of food in God's name, and
now he gives a feast as if he were count or king;" and he turned to his
brother and said:
"But whence, in Hell's name, have you got all this wealth?"
"From behind the door," answered the owner of the quern, for he didn't
care to let the cat out of the bag. But later on in the evening, when he
had got a drop too much, he could keep his secret no longer, and brought
out the quern and said:
"There, you see what has gotten me all this wealth;" and so he made the
quern grind all kind of things. When his brother saw it, he set his
heart on having the quern, and, after a deal of coaxing, he got it; but
he had to pay three hundred dollars for it, and his brother bargained to
keep it till hay-harvest, for he thought, if I keep it till then, I can
make it grind meat and drink that will last for years.
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