a suitable dress.

It was natural for Kaskas to gratify his landlord's curiosity by the
relation of his adventures, and he recounted them with such an air of
candour as to leave no doubt of their truth. As this old man had just
lost his steward, he judged Kaskas worthy to succeed him, and offered
him this new office, with an appointment of two pieces of gold a day.
It was a laborious office: he had to sow a considerable quantity of
ground, to direct the work and workmen, to gather in immense harvests,
to look after the flocks, and to give in accurate and faithful
accounts of the whole at the end of the year. The poor Kaskas returned
thanks to Providence for thus putting it in his power to earn a
subsistence by his labour, since every other resource in the world had
failed him; and he immediately entered on the duties of his new
place.

These he fulfilled with assiduity, zeal, and knowledge, till the very
moment when he was to treasure up the different crops. As his master
had never yet given him any part of his wages, he suspected that he
would not fulfil his engagements, and, to make sure of his salary, he
set apart as much of the grain as would amount to the sum, and shut up
all the rest, giving an account of it to his master. The latter
received this account, full of confidence in his steward, and paid him
all the wages which he owed him, assuring him of the same punctuality
in that respect every year. Kaskas was much ashamed of the precautions
which he had taken, and of the suspicions which he had allowed himself
to entertain.

He immediately returned to the little magazine he had made, in order
to repair his injustice, if happily it were still in his power. But
what was his surprise when he did not find in it the grain he had set
apart! He thought he saw in this theft the punishment of Heaven, and
determined to confess the fault of which he had been guilty. With a
heart full of grief he returned to his master.

"You appear vexed," said the old man. "What can be the cause of it?"

Then Kaskas, flattering himself that he would obtain by his sincerity
the pardon of his fault, made a humble confession of the motive, and
all the circumstances of it, even to the carrying off the grain which
he had set apart, and of which he had not been able to discover the
thieves.

The old man, discovering the marked influence of his steward's
malignant star, thought it would be imprudent to keep him any longer
in his service,