THE STORY OF THE JOLLY HARPER MAN AND HIS GOOD FORTUNE.
“Many, many years ago,—as long ago as the days of Fair Rosamond, when Henry Plantagenet and his unruly family governed England, and some think as long ago as old Henry I.,—there lived in Scotland a jolly harper man, who was accounted the most charming player in all the world. The children followed him in crowds through the streets, nor could they be stopped while he continued playing; even the animals in the woods sat on their haunches to listen when he wandered harping through the country; and the fair daughters of the nobles immediately fell in love as often as he approached their castles.
“King Henry had a wonderful horse—a very wonderful horse—named Brownie. He did not quite equal in dexterity and intelligence the high-flying animal of whom you have read in the ‘Arabian Nights,’ but he knew a great deal, and was a sort of philosopher among horses,—just as Newton was a philosopher among men. King Henry said he would not part with him for a province,—he would rather lose his crown. In this he was wise, for a new crown could have been as easily made as a stew-pan; but all the world, it may be, could not produce such another intelligent horse.
“King Henry had fine stables built for the animal,—a sort of horse palace. They were very strong, and were fastened by locks, and bars, and bolts, and were kept by gay grooms, and guarded day and night by soldiers, who never had been known to falter in their devotion to the interests of the king.
“So strongly was the animal guarded, that it came to be a proverb among the English yeomanry, that a person could no more do this or that hard thing than ‘they could steal Brownie from the stables of the king.’
“The king liked the proverb; it was a compliment to his wisdom and sagacity. It made him feel good,—so good, in fact, that it led him one day quite to overshoot the mark in an effort that he made to increase the people’s high opinion.
“‘If any one,’ said he, after a good dinner,—‘if any one were smart enough to get Brownie out of his stables without my knowledge, I would for his cleverness forgive him, and give him an estate to return the animal.’ Then he looked very wise, and felt very comfortable and very secure. ‘But,’ he added, ‘evil overtake the man who gets caught in an attempt to steal my horse. Lucky will it be for him if his eyes ever see the light of the English sun again.’
“Then the report went abroad that the man who would be so shrewd as to get possession of the king’s horse should have an estate, but that he who failed in the attempt should lose his head.
“The English court, at this time, was at Carlisle, near the Scottish border. The jolly harper man lived in the old town of Striveling, since called Stirling, at some distance from the border.
“The jolly harper man, like most people of genius, was very poor. He often played in the castles of the nobles, especially on festive occasions; and, as he contrasted the luxurious living of these fat lords with his own poverty, he became suddenly seized with a desire for wealth, and he remembered the proverb, which was old even then, that ‘Where there is a will there is a way.’