| Show A SWEDISH LEGEND the penalty by satan on the piper family I 1 will repeat one of the many legends told me by a charming swedish lady about alie family of count piper the well known minister of her country to the court of st james says a w riter in the national review once apon a time the head of this house was bored to death in his splendid castle and he dawned yawned his thousandth yawn and said 1 I would I 1 had eat n the devil to pla cards with me and at the word batai himself appeared in the guise of a gentleman in which shelley also knew him oddly enough the devil loat hifa money and having none in his pockets for reasons beat known to himself he offered the count in full quittance of all claims an apparently golden chain remarking that whenever that chain was lost or injured the castle of the pipers would infallibly be burned this unusual announcement aroused the winners suspicions and happening to look under the card table he beheld the cloven hoof instantly he sprang to the wall to reach down his sword for swords in those days the date of which I 1 cannot exactly give were always ready to the hand but the devil was gone and the chain alone remained on examination it proved to be long and thin with innumerable little links such a chain as old gentlemen used to beur around their necks for watch chains not long ago an assay discovered alic metal to be something other than gold but could by no means determine what it actually was an accidental injury to one of the links however caused by the hammer of the goldsmith cost the count a wing of his castle and a second injury and a temporary loss of the chain having resulted in a second and in a fire it at once became apparent eliat the devil would keep his word each successive head of the piper family has worn that chain around his neck from the day of his accession to the day of bis death |
