A PIECE OF GOOD LUCK

have saved us, and you have my piece of good luck into
the bargain. Give it to me again.”

“T will do nothing of the sort,” said the princess. “If
the men folk think no more of a piece of good luck than
‘to hand it round like a bit of broken glass, it is better for
the women folk to keep it for them.”

And there, to my mind, she brewed good common-
sense, that needed no skimming to make it fit for Jacob
Stuck, or for any other man, for the matter of that.

And now for the end of this story. Jacob Stuck lived
with his princess in his fine palace as grand as a king,
and when the old king died he became the king after him.

One day there came two men travelling along, and
they were, footsore and weary. They stopped at Jacob
Stuck’s palace and asked for something to eat. Jacob
Stuck did not know them at first, and then he did. One
was Joseph and the other was John.

This is what had happened to them:

Joseph had sat and sat where John and Jacob Stuck
had left him on his box of silver money, until a band of
thieves had come along and robbed him of it all. John.
had carried away his pockets and his hat full of gold, and
had lived like a prince as long as it had lasted. Then he
had gone back for more, but in the meantime some rogue
had come along and had stolen it all. Yes; that was what
had happened, and now they were as poor as ever.

Jacob Stuck welcomed them and brought them in and
made much of them.

Well, the truth is truth, and this is it: It is better to
have a little bit of good luck to help one in what one under-
takes than to have a chest of silver or a chest of gold.

197