A PIECE OF GOOD LUCK

just as well satisfied to keep his treasure for himself. So
the two shook hands, and then Jacob Stuck jogged away
alone, leaving John stuffing his pockets and his hat full
of gold money, and I should have liked to have been
there, to have had my share.

Well, Jacob Stuck jogged on and on by himself, until
after a while he came to a great, wide desert, where there
was not a blade or a stick to be seen far or near. He
jogged on and on, and he wished he had not come there.
He jogged on and on, when all of a sudden the glass
ball he carried slipped out of his fingers and fell to the
ground.

“Aha!” said he to himself, “now maybe I shall find
some great treasure compared to which even silver and
gold are as nothing at all.”

He digged down into the barren earth of the desert ;
and he digged and he digged, but neither silver nor gold
did he find. He digged and digged; and by-and-by, at
last, he did find something. And what was it? Why,
nothing but something that looked like a piece of blue
glass not a bit bigger than my thumb. ‘Is that all?”
said Jacob Stuck. ‘And have I travelled all this weary
way and into the blinding desert only for this? Have I
passed by silver and gold enough to make me rich for all
my life, only to find a little piece of blue glass ?”

Jacob Stuck did not know what he had found. I shall
tell you what it was. It was a solid piece of good luck
without flaw or blemish, and it was almost the only piece
L ever heard tell of. Yes; that was what it was—a solid
piece of good luck; and as for Jacob Stuck, why, he was
not the first in the world by many and one over who has
failed to know a piece of good‘luck when they have found

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