TWILIGHT LAND

for he was not wise enough to know that great differ-
ences come from little matters. He griped the cudgel in
his right hand, and struck the dancers with might and
main, just as the old man had done. Crack! crack !
crack! One! two! three!

Did they change into piles of gold? Not a bit of it!
Each of the dancers drew from under his robe a cudgel
as stout and stouter than the one the young man himself
held, and, without a word, fell upon him and began to
beat and drub him until the dust flew. In vain he
hopped and howled and begged for mercy, in vain he
tried to defend himself; the three never stopped until he
fell to the ground, and laid there panting and sighing and
groaning ; and then they left and flew back with the iron
candlestick and the magic carpet to the old man again. -
At last, after a great while, the young spendthrift sat up,
rubbing the sore places; but when he looked around not
a sign was to be seen of anything but the stony desert,
without a house or a man in sight.

Perhaps, after a long time, he found his way home
again, and perhaps the drubbing he had had taught him
wisdom ; the first is a likely enough thing to happen, but
as for the second, it would need three strong men to tell
it to me a great many times before I would believe it.

‘You may smile at this story if you like, but, all the
same, as certainly as there is meat in an egg-shell, so is
there truth in this nonsense. For, “Give a fool heaven

and earth,” say I, “and all the stars, and he will make
ducks and drakes of them,”

I1zZ