TWILIGHT LAND

little he began to take up with his old ways again, and to
call his old cronies around, until at the end of another
twelvemonth things were a hundred times worse and
wilder than ever ; for now what he had he had without end.

One day, when he and a great party of roisterers were
shouting and making merry, he brought out his earthen-
ware pot to show them the wonders of it; and to prove
its virtue he gave to each guest whatever he wanted.
“What will you have? ”—‘A handful of gold.”—“ Put ©
your hand in and get it!”—“ What will you have? ”—
‘A fistful of pearls.” —“ Put your fist in and get them!”
— What will you have ?’”—“A necklace of diamonds ”
—“Dip into the jar and get it.” And so he went from
one to another, and each and every one got what he asked
for, and such a shouting and hubbub those walls had
never heard before.

Then the young man, holding the jar in his hands,
began to dance and to sing: “O wonderful jar! O
beautiful jar! O beloved jar!” and so on; his friends
clapping their hands, and laughing and cheering him. At
last, in the height of his folly, he balanced the earthen
jar on his head, and began dancing around and around
with it to show his dexterity,

Smash! crash! “The precious jar lay in fifty pieces on
the stone floor, and the young man stood staring at the
result of his folly with bulging eyes, while his friends
roared and laughed and shouted louder than ever over his
mishap. And again his treasure and his gay life were gone.

But what had been hard for him to do before was
easier now. At the end of a week he was back at the old
man’s house rapping on the door. This time the old man
asked him never a word, but frowned as black as thunder.

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