the porch of his house, but
he looked up and nodded, saying, "Young man, you are welcome to any
assistance a stranger may need and we can give. If you are in want of
food, you will find my wife and daughter in the house; they will be
happy to cook for you." The Rajah went inside and said to the
Carpenter's daughter, "I am a stranger and have travelled a long way;
I am both tired and hungry; cook me some dinner as fast as you can,
and I will pay you for your trouble." She answered, "I would willingly
cook you some dinner at once, but I have no wood to light the fire,
and the jungle is some way off." "It matters not," said the Rajah;
"this will do to light the fire, and I'll make the loss good to your
father"; and taking a pair of new clogs which the Carpenter had just
finished making, he broke them up and lighted the fire with them.

Next morning, he went into the jungle, cut wood, and, having made a
pair of new clogs--better than those with which he had lighted the
fire the evening before--placed them with the rest of the goods for
sale in the Carpenter's shop. Shortly afterward, one of the servants
of the Rajah of that country came to buy a pair of clogs for his
master, and seeing these new ones, said to the Carpenter, "Why, man,
these clogs are better than all the rest put together. I will take
none other to the Rajah. I wish you would always make such clogs as
these." And throwing down ten gold mohurs on the floor of the hut, he
took up the clogs and went away.

The Carpenter was much surprised at the whole business. In the first
place, he usually received only two or three rupees for each pair of
clogs; and in the second, he knew that these which the Rajah's servant
had judged worth ten gold mohurs had not been made by him; and how
they had come there he could not think, for he felt certain they were
not with the rest of the clogs the night before. He thought and
thought, but the more he thought about the matter the more puzzled he
got, and he went to talk about it to his wife and daughter. Then his
daughter said, "Oh, those must have been the clogs the stranger made!"
And she told her father how he had lighted the fire the night before
with two of the clogs which were for sale, and had afterward fetched
wood from the jungle and made another pair to replace them.

The Carpenter, at this news, was more astonished than ever, and he
thought to himself, "Since this stranger seems a quiet, peaceable sort
of man, and c