The goldsmith tested it to make sure of the quality of the metal, weighed it, and said, “Your ax is worth one hundred dollars, but I have not so much money in the shop.”
“Give me what you have,” the scholar requested, “and I will trust you for the rest.”
So the goldsmith gave him eighty dollars, and the scholar tramped back home. “Father,” he said, “I have some money now. Do you know what we will have to pay our neighbor to make good the loss of his ax?”
“Yes,” the father answered, “the ax was nearly new, and it cost him a dollar.”
“Then give him two dollars,” the son said. “He will have no regrets when he gets double payment. Here are fifty dollars. Pay our neighbor and keep the rest for yourself. You shall live at your ease in future and never want again.”
“My goodness!” the man exclaimed, “where did you get this money?”
The son told everything that had happened. He now could easily procure all the money he pleased, and the first use he made of his wealth was to return to school and learn as much as he could. Afterward, because he could heal all wounds with his rag, he became the most celebrated surgeon in the world.
V—YALLERY BROWN
Once upon a time there was a lad about eighteen years old named Tom Tiver who had hired out to work for a farmer. One beautiful Sunday night in July he was walking across a field. The weather was warm and still, and the air was full of little sounds as if the trees and grasses were softly chattering to themselves.
But all at once there came from on ahead the most pitiful wailings that ever he had heard—a sobbing as of a child spent with fear and nearly heartbroken. Soon the sound changed to a moan, and then rose again in a long whimpering wailing that made Tom sick to hark to it. He began to look everywhere for the poor creature.