TWILIGHT LAND

But you should have seen how all the people stared
and goggled!—Babo and the blacksmith and the noble-
man’s servants. The nobleman strutted up and down for
a while admiring himself, and then he got upon his horse
again. “‘ But wait,” said Simon Agricola, ‘ you forgot to
pay me my thousand golden angels.”

“Pooh!” said the nobleman, and off he clattered, with
his servants at his heels. And that was all the good that
Simon Agricola had of this trick. But ill-luck was not
done with him yet, for when the smith saw how matters
had turned out, he laid hold of the doctor and would
not let him go until he had paid him the golden angel
he had promised for the use of the forge. The doctor
pulled a sour face, but all the same he had to pay the
angel. Then the smith let him go, and off he marched in
a huff.

Outside of the forge was the smith’s mother—a poor
old creature, withered and twisted and bent as a winter
twig. Babo had kept his eyes open, and had not travelled
with Simon Agricola for nothing. He plucked the smith
by the sleeve: ‘“ Look’ee, friend,” said he, ‘“how would
you like me to make your mother, over yonder, young
again ?”

“T should like nothing@better,” said the smith.

“Very well,” said Babo, “give me the golden angel
that the master gave you, and I'll do the job for you.”

Well, the smith paid the money, and Babo bade him

‘blow the bellows. When the fire roared up good and hot,
he caught up the old mother, and, in spite of her ‘scratch-
ing and squalling, he laid her upon the embers. By-and-
by, when he thought the right time had come, he took her
out and dipped her in the tank of water; but instead of

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