One day the rich brother came and knocked at the other’s door. “Well, brother,” says he, “I am glad to see you getting along so well in the world. Let us let bygones be bygones and live together as we should, for I am sorry for what I did to you.”
Well, that suited the younger brother well enough; he bore no malice against the other, for all that had been done had turned out for the best. All the same, he was more sure than ever now that mercy was better than greed.
The elder brother twisted up his face at this, as though the words were sour; all the same, he did not argue the question, for what he had come for was to find why the world had grown so easy with the other all of a sudden. So in he came, and they lit their pipes and sat down by the stove together.
He was a keen blade, was the elder brother, and it was not long before he had screwed the whole story out of the other.
“Dear, dear, dear!” said he, “I only wish I could find a black pebble like that one of yours.”
“It would do you no good if you had it,” said the younger brother, “for I have brought away all that is worth the having. All the same, if you want my black pebble now you are welcome to it.”
Did the elder brother want it! Why, of course he wanted it, and he could not find words enough to thank the younger.
Off he went, hot-foot, to find the door back of the oak-tree; “For,” said he to himself, “I will bring something back better worth the having than a musty book, an old pair of spectacles, and a red apple.”
He touched the door with the black stone, and it opened for him just as it had for the younger brother.