midnight
For a long time the timber merchants were ignorant of this proceeding , and before people were aware , money , swearing , corrupt manners , drunkenness and gambling were imported from Holland . `` When the thing became known , Michel was nowhere to be found , but he was not dead ; for a hundred years he has been haunting the forest , and is said to have helped many in becoming rich at the cost of their souls of course : more I will not say . This much , however , is certain , that to the present day , in boisterous nights , he finds out the finest pines in the Tannenbühl where people are not to fell wood ; and my father has seen him break off one of four feet diameter , as he would break a reed . Such trees he gives to those who turn from the right path and go to him ; at midnight they bring their rafts to the water and he goes to Holland with them . If I were lord and king in Holland , I would have him shot with grape , for all the ships that have but a single beam of Michel 's , must go to the bottom . Hence it is that we hear of so many shipwrecks ; and if it were not so , how could a beautiful , strong ship as large as a church , be sunk . But as often as Michel fells a pine in the forest during a boisterous night , one of his old ones starts from its joints , the water enters , and the ship is lost , men and all .