Fables
By Robert Louis Stevenson

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Public Domain Books

V. - The Devil and the Innkeeper.

ONCE upon a time the devil stayed at an inn, where no one knew him, for they were people whose education had been neglected. He was bent on mischief, and for a time kept everybody by the ears. But at last the innkeeper set a watch upon the devil and took him in the fact.

The innkeeper got a rope’s end.

“Now I am going to thrash you,” said the innkeeper.

“You have no right to be angry with me,” said the devil. “I am only the devil, and it is my nature to do wrong.”

“Is that so?” asked the innkeeper.

“Fact, I assure you,” said the devil.

“You really cannot help doing ill?” asked the innkeeper.

“Not in the smallest,” said the devil; “it would be useless cruelty to thrash a thing like me.”

“It would indeed,” said the innkeeper.

And he made a noose and hanged the devil.

“There!” said the innkeeper.

Continue...

I. - The Persons of the Tale,  •  II. - The Sinking Ship.  •  III - The Two Matches.  •  IV. - The Sick Man and the Fireman.  •  V. - The Devil and the Innkeeper.  •  VI. - The Penitent.  •  VII. - The Yellow Paint.  •  VIII. - The House of Eld.  •  IX - The Four Reformers.  •  XI. - The Reader.  •  XII. - The Citizen and the Traveller.  •  XIII. - The Distinguished Stranger.  •  XIV. - The Cart-Horses and the Saddle-Horse.  •  XV. - The Tadpole and the Frog.  •  XVI. - Something In It.  •  XVII. - Faith, Half Faith and No Faith At All.  •  XVIII. - The Touchstone.  •  XIX. - The Poor Thing.  •  XX. - The Song of the Morrow.

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A Child's Garden of Verses
By Robert Louis Stevenson
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