“Perhaps I shall find enough to shoe your donkey, and then I shall be very pleased to do what you ask.” He then turned to the young woman, who had dismounted, and said, “Rest yourself in the kitchen. If there is bread and milk in the larder, I pray you eat it. I possess very little, but what I have is at your service.”
Smith unearthed an old shoe from a heap of old iron; the donkey was soon tied up to the brake, and the fire was soon blazing with the help of the bellows. The shoe was tried on, put back into the fire, and then on to the anvil to round it with a stroke of the hammer, and everything was in order.
THE SHOE WAS TRIED ON
“What do I owe you, Smith?” asked the old man.
The blacksmith, who had noticed the stranger’s poor clothing and downtrodden shoes, shrugged his shoulders, and thought to himself, “Can I ask payment for such a small service from these poor creatures who have a long journey before them? I should be ashamed to do so, although I have not a penny to bless myself with.”
He answered, “You owe me nothing, my friend; I do it for you for pity’s sake.”
The old man’s eyes shone with a strange light, and in a solemn voice he said, “As you have helped me for the love of God, I grant you three wishes. Whatever you may ask of my wife, little child, and I, we will grant you.”
“Three wishes,” thought the smith; “no matter what I wish it will be granted. These poor creatures so miserably clothed have the power to grant them. Who can they be?”
Only half credulous, he wished that any one who sat in his chair should be unable to get up without his consent; that any one who had the audacity to climb up his walnut-tree should not come down unless he wished it; and, lastly, that anything that was in his purse should remain in it unless he wished otherwise.