Part 25 (1/2)

”A dead branch”

”Off of thetree!!”

”Off of thetree”

The first beggar could hardly breathe

”And what did you do with the dead branch after that?”

”I threw it away into the water, and it floated down the river”

The beggar to who, and down to the river-side, thu his head with his knuckles like one possessed For he knew that the branch his brother had broken off of the tree and had thrown into the water, was the very one in which he had hidden the bag of , as the rich man took a walk down by the river, he saw a dead branch that had been washed up by the tide ”Halloo!” says he, ”this will do to kindle the fire with”

So he brought it to the house, and, taking down his axe, began to split it up for kindling The very first blow he gave, out tuar--well, by-and-by his grieving got better of its first smart, and then he started off down the river to see if he could not find his ain He hunted up and he hunted down, but never a whit of it did he see, and at last he stopped at the rich s for the night There he told all his story--how he had hidden the iven him from his brother, how his brother had broken off the branch and had thrown it away, and how he had spent the whole live-long day searching for it And to all the rich , he thought to himself, ”Maybe, after all, it is not the will of Heaven that this ive hiar to coar was snoring away in his bed in the garret, the rich reat pies, each with a fine brown crust In the first pie he put the little bag of money; the second he filled full of rusty nails and scraps of iron

The next ar to hirieve sadly for the story you told one And now, if you will choose as you should choose, you shall not go away froreat pies--one is for you and one for me Go in and take whichever one you please”

”A pie!” thought the beggar to hi pie will comfort me for the loss of three hundred pieces ofto be had, into the pantry the beggar went and there began to feel and weigh the pies, and the one filled with the rusty nails and scraps of iron was ever so much the fatter and the heavier

”This is the one that I shall take,” said he to the richit under his arot back to the town he grew hungry, and sat down by the roadside to eat his pie; and if there was ever an angry man in the world before, he was one that day--for there was his pie full of nothing but rusty nails and bits of iron ”This is the way the rich always treat the poor,” said he

So back he went in a fuive me a pie full of old nails for?” said he

”You took the pie of your own choice,” said the rich e with ive you soht the rich man had his wife bake two loaves of bread, in one of which she hid the bag with the three hundred pieces of gold ar in the , ”and there you will find two loaves of bread--one is for you and one for ar, and the first loaf of bread he laid his hand upon was the one in which the money was hidden, and off hethank you

”I wonder,” said he to hi awhile--”I wonder whether the rich man is up to another trick such as he played upon me yesterday?” He put the loaf of bread to his ear and shook it and shook it, and what should he hear but the chink of the money within ”Ah ha!” said he, ”he has filled it with rusty nails and bits of iron again, but I will get the better of hi home from market ”Would you like to buy a fine fresh loaf of bread?” said the beggar

”Yes, I would,” said the woman

”Well, here is one you ar

That was cheap enough, so the woman paid him his price and off she ith the loaf of bread under her arm, and never stopped until she had come to her home

Now it happened that the day before this very woman had borrowed just such a loaf of bread from the rich man's wife; and so, as there was plenty in the house without it, she wrapped this loaf up in a napkin, and sent her husband back with it to where it had started from first of all