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Show Fable of the Horseshoe. Do you know the German fable about the horseshoe? In the olden times. In a little village in Germany, a blacksmith black-smith was hard at work. The sound of the anvil attracted the attention of the devil. He saw that the smith was making horseshoes, and thought it would be a good idea to get his own hoofs shod. So the devil struck a bargain, bar-gain, and put up his foot. The blacksmith saw - with whom he was dealing and nailed a red-hot shoe on, driving the halls square into the devil's hoof. The devil then paid him, and left; but the honest blacksmith pwir threw the money in the fire. He knew it would bring him bad luck. Meanwhile the devil had walked some distance, and began to suffer the greatest great-est torture from the shoes. The more ' . he danced and kicked and swore, the ; worse the things hurt him. Finally, after he had gone through the most fearful agony, he tore them off and threw them away. 1 . From that time forward, whenever he 1 , saw a horseshoe, he would run off, anx- i ; ious only to get out of the way. The German peasantry all believe this story today, and one can scarcely find a door-step door-step or a barn door that hasn't a horseshoe horse-shoe nailed up. ! |