TWILIGHT LAND

So he told the poor beggar to come in and stay for the
night ; and, whilst the beggar was snoring: away in his
bed in the garret, the rich man had his wife make two
great pies, each with a fine brown crust. In the first pie
he put the little bag of money; the second he filled full of
rusty nails and scraps of iron. :

The next morning he called the beggar to him. ‘‘My
friend,” said he, “I grieve sadly for the story you told me
last night. But maybe, after all, your luck is not all gone.
And now, if you will choose as you should choose, you
shall not go away from here comfortless. In the pantry
yonder are two great pies—one is for you, and one for me.
‘Go in and take whichever one you please.”

“A pie!” thought the beggar to himself; ‘‘does the
‘man think that a big pie will comfort me ae the loss of
three. hundred pieces of money?” Nevertheless, as it
was the best thing to be had, into the pantry the beggar
went and there began to feel and weigh the pies, and the
cone filled with the rusty nails and scraps of iron was ever
so much the fatter and the heavier.

‘“‘ This is the one that I shall take,” said he to the rich
man, ‘and you may have the other.” And, tucking it
under his arm, off he tramped.

Well, before he got back to the town he grew hungry,
and sat down by the roadside to eat his pie; and if there
was ever an angry man in the world before, he was one
that day—for there was his pie full of nothing but rusty
nails and bits of iron. ‘‘ This is the way the rich always
treat the poor,” said he.

So back he went ina fume. ‘What did you give me
a pie full of old nails for?” said he.

“You took the pie of your own choice,” said the rich

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