Hans therefore went down alone , and began to clean out the well , but the men had arranged how they were to act , and immediately each of them seized a stone from a heap of huge blocks , and threw them down above him , thinking to kill him with these . Hans , however , gave no more heed to this than to shout up to them , to keep the hens away from the well , for they were scraping gravel down on the top of him . They then saw that they could not kill him with little stones , but they had still the big one left . The whole twelve of them set to work with poles and rollers and rolled the big mill-stone to the brink of the well . It was with the greatest difficulty that they got it thrown down there , and now they had no doubt that he had got all that he wanted . But the stone happened to fall so luckily that his head went right through the hole in the middle of the mill-stone , so that it sat round his neck like a priest 's collar . At this , Hans would stay down no longer . He came out of the well , with the mill-stone round his neck , ad went straight to the squire and complained that the other men were trying to make a fool of him . He would not be their priest , he said ; he had too little learning for that . Saying this , he bent down his head and shook the stone off , so that it crushed one of the squire 's big toes . The squire went limping in to his wife , and the steward was sent for . He was told that he must devise some plan for getting rid of this terrible person . The scheme he had devised before had been of no use , and now good counsel was scarce . ` Oh , no ' said the steward , ` there are good enough ways yet . The squire can send him this evening to fish in Devilmoss Lake : he will never escape alive from there , for no one can go there by night for Old Eric . ' That was a grand idea , both the squire and his wife thought , and so he limped out again to Hans , and said that he would punish his men for having tried to make a fool of him . Meanwhile , Hans could do a little job where he would be free from these rascals . He should go out on the lake and fish there that night , and would then be free from all work on the following day . ` All right , ' said Hans ; ' I am well content with that , but I must have something with me to eat -- a baking of bread , a cask of butter , a barrel of ale , and a keg of brandy . I ca n't do with less than that . '
The squire said that he could easily get all that , so Hans got all of these tied up together , hung them over his shoulder XXXXX his good staff , and tramped away to Devilmoss Lake .
At above before down for from on than through with