The Miracle of the Great St. Nicolas

rld knows: "There were three little children In the fields they went to glean."This famous text expressly states that a cruel pork-butcher put the innocents "like pigs into the salting-vat." That is to say, he apparently preserved them, cut into pieces, in a bath of brine. This is, to be sure, how pork is cured: but one is surprised to read further on that the three little children remained seven years in pickle, whereas it is usual to begin withdrawing the pieces of flesh from the tub, with a wooden fork, at the end of about six weeks. The text is explicit: according to the elegy, it was seven years after the crime that St. Nicolas entered the accursed hostelry. He asked for supper. The landlord offered him a piece of ham: "'Wilt eat of ham? Tis dainty food.' 'I'll have no ham: it is not good. 'Wilt cat a piece of tender veal? 'I will not make of that my meal. Young salted flesh I want, and that Has lain seven years within the vat. Wheras the butcher heard this said Out of the door full fast he fled."