“What an extraordinary object!” the king exclaimed. “I have seen many marvels, but never anything so remarkable as this. You must be a child of good luck, whether you raised this turnip from seed or found it full grown.”
“Oh no!” said the farmer, “lucky I certainly am not. For many years I was a poor soldier, but recently I hung my uniform on a nail, and now I till the earth. I have a brother who is rich and well known to you, my lord king; but I, because I have nothing, am forgotten by all the world.”
Thereupon the king pitied him and said, “You shall be poor no longer;” and he presented him with gold, land, flocks, and herds that made him richer than his brother.
When the brother heard what had happened he was envious and pondered how he might gain a like treasure for himself. Presently he took jewels and swift horses and gave them to the king. “If my brother got so much for a single turnip,” thought he, “what will I not get for these beautiful things?”
The king received the present very graciously and told the soldier he could give him in return nothing rarer or better than the magnificent turnip.
So the wealthy soldier was obliged to hire a cart, and have the turnip taken to his home. He arrived there full of wrath and bitterness. The more he thought on the matter the worse he felt, and at length he formed the evil design of having his brother killed. He hired two ruffians, who waylaid the former poor soldier as he was passing through a wood. They seized and bound him and prepared to hang him on a tree. But before they had accomplished their purpose they heard an approaching clatter of hoofs and the sound of singing. That frightened them so much that they thrust their prisoner head first into a sack, attached a rope to it, threw the end of the rope over a branch of an oak and hauled him well up into the tree. Then they took to flight.
The prisoner soon contrived to work a hole in the sack, and stuck his head out. Then he perceived that the noise which had saved him was made by a student, a young fellow who was riding through the wood singing snatches of song as he went along. Just as the student was passing the tree, the man called out: “Good day. You come in the nick of time.”
The youth stopped his horse and looked all round, but could not make out where the voice came from. At last he said, “Who calls?”
“Raise your eyes,” said the man. “I am sitting up here in the Sack of Knowledge, and in a short time I have learned so much that the wisdom of the schools is as air compared to mine. Soon I shall have learned everything, and I shall come down and be the wisest of mankind. I understand astronomy and the blowing of the winds and the art of healing the sick, and I know every herb and all the birds and stones. If you were here in my place you would feel what splendor flows from the Sack of Knowledge.”
All this greatly astonished and impressed the student, in which he said: “Blessed be the hour in which I met you! Let me get into the sack for a little while.”