“AYE, aye,” said St. George, “and so it should end.
For what was your Aben Hassen the Fool but a heathen
Paniem? Thus should the heads of all the like be chopped
off from thew shoulders. Is there not some one here to tell
us a fair story about a samt?”

“ For the matter of that,” said the Lad who fiddled when
the Jew was in the bramble-bush— for the matter of that I
know a very good story that begins about a saint and a
hagel-nut.

“Say you so?” said St. George. “Well, let us have it.

But stay, friend, thou hast no ale in thy pot. Wilt thou
not let me pay for having it filled ?”

“ That,” said the Lad who fiddled when the Jew was in the
bramble-bush, “may be as you please, Sir Knight; and, to
tell the truth, I will be mightily glad for a drop to moisten
my throat withal.”

“ But,” said Fortunatus, “you have not told us what the
story 1s to be about.”

“It 18,” said the Lad who fiddled for the Jew in the
bramble-bush, about—

64