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Once upon a time there lived an old man and his wife in a dirty,
tumble-down cottage, not very far from the splendid palace where
the king and queen dwelt. In spite of the wretched state of the hut,
which many people declared was too bad even for a pig to live in,
the old man was very rich, for he was a great miser, and lucky
besides, and would often go without food all day sooner than
change one of his beloved gold pieces.
But after a while he found that he had starved himself once too
often. He fell ill, and had no strength to get well again, and in a few
days he died, leaving his wife and one son behind him.
The night following his death, the son dreamed that an unknown
man appeared to him and said: 'Listen to me; your father is dead
and your mother will soon die, and all their riches will belong to
you. Half of his wealth is ill-gotten, and this you must give back to
the poor from whom he squeezed it. The other half you must
throw into the sea. Watch, however, as the money sinks into the
water, and if anything should swim, catch it and keep it, even if it is
nothing more than a bit of paper.'
Then the man vanished, and the youth awoke.
The remembrance of his dream troubled him greatly. He did not
want to part with the riches that his father had left him, for he had
known all his life what it was to be cold and hungry, and now he
had hoped for a little comfort and pleasure. Still, he was honest
and good-hearted, and if his father had come wrongfully by his
wealth he felt he could never enjoy it, and at last he made up his
mind to do as he had been bidden. He found out who were the
people who were poorest in the village, and spent half of his money
in helping them, and the other half he put in his pocket. From a
rock that jutted right out into the sea he flung it in. In a moment it
was out of sight, and no man could have told the spot where it had
sunk, except for a tiny scrap of paper floating on the water. He
stretched down carefully and managed to reach it, and on opening it
found six shillings wrapped inside. This was now all the money he
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Fairytales 
