“If you treat them well,” said the mother, “God will reward you.”
“Have no fear as to my taking good care of them,” said the brother. “May God never prosper me or mine if I should do them wrong.”
Not long afterward the gentleman and the lady died, and they were buried side by side in the same grave. It was found that the gentleman’s will gave his son three hundred pounds a year after he came of age, and the girl was to be paid five hundred pounds in gold on the day that she married. But if they happened to die before the money was paid to them their property was all to go to their uncle.
He took them to his own home, and for a time made much of them and showed them great kindness. At length, however, he began to covet their wealth, and to wish that they were dead so he could possess it; but they continued sturdy and well. Finally he said to himself: “It would not be very difficult for me to have them killed in such a way that my neighbors would never suspicion that I was responsible for the deed. Then their property would be mine, and that would be an end of the matter.”
With this thought in mind the cruel uncle soon determined how to dispose of the children. He hired two burly ruffians, who were used to doing desperate deeds, to take the little boy and girl into a thick, dark wood, some distance away, and slay them. To his wife he told an artful story of intending to send the children to London where they could be brought up by one of his friends. “Would you not like that, my pretty ones?” he said to them. “You will see famous London Town; and you, my lad, can buy a fine wooden horse there, and ride on it all day long, and you can buy a whip to make him gallop, and you can buy a sword to wear by your side. As for your sister, she shall have pretty frocks, and she shall have dolls and other nice playthings.”
“Oh, yes, I will go, uncle,” said the little boy.
“Goody-good,” said the little girl, “and I will go, too.”
So he got them ready, as if for a long journey, and sent them off in a fine coach in charge of the two wretches. As they rode along the children prattled pleasantly to the men who intended to be their butchers. When they reached the borders of the dark, thick wood, the ruffians took their charges out of the coach and told them they might walk a little way and gather some flowers. While the children were running about, the men turned their backs on them and began to talk about what they had to do.
“Truly,” said one, “now that I have seen their sweet faces and heard their pretty talk, I have no heart to do the cruel deed.”
“Nor have I,” said the other, “but we have been paid so much to do this thing that I shall complete my part of the bargain.”