then there was another knock, but the knock was at the door of his room. it was his neighbour, a poor man who had a number of children whom he could no longer satisfy with food. "i know," thought the poor man, "that my neighbour is rich, but he is as hard as he is rich. i don’t believe he will help me, but my children are crying for bread, so i will venture it." he said to the rich man, "you do not readily give away anything that is yours, but i stand here like one who feels the water rising above his head. my children are starving, lend me four measures* of corn." the rich man looked at him long, and then the first sunbeam of mercy began to melt away a drop of the ice of greediness. "i will not lend thee four measures," he answered, "but i will make thee a present of eight, but thou must fulfil one condition." "what am i to do?" said the poor man. "when i am dead, thou shalt watch for three nights by my grave." the peasant was disturbed in his mind at this request, but in the need in which he was, he would have consented to anything; he accepted, therefore, and carried the corn home with him.