ad been poured into a stocking; but
honesty and industry are good winds to speed a vessel; and now the
dealer was possessor of the baronial estate. But from that hour no
more card-playing was permitted there. "That is bad reading," said he:
"when the Evil One saw a Bible for the first time, he wanted to put a
bad book against it, and invented card-playing."

The new proprietor took a wife; and who might that be but the
goose-girl, who had always been faithful and good, and looked as
beautiful and fine in her new clothes as if she had been born a great
lady. And how did all this come about? That is too long a story for
our busy time, but it really happened, and the most important part is
to come.

It was a good thing now to be in the old mansion. The mother managed
the domestic affairs, and the father superintended the estate, and it
seemed as if blessings were streaming down. Where rectitude enters in,
prosperity is sure to follow. The old house was cleaned and painted,
the ditches were cleared and fruit trees planted. Everything wore a
bright cheerful look, and the floors were as polished as a draught
board. In the long winter evenings the lady sat at the spinning-wheel
with her maids, and every Sunday evening there was a reading from the
Bible, by the Councillor of Justice himself--this title the dealer had
gained, though it was only in his old age. The children grew up--for
children had come--and they received the best education, though all
had not equal abilities, as we find indeed in all families.

In the meantime the willow branch at the castle-gate had grown to be a
splendid tree, which stood there free and self-sustained. "That is our
genealogical tree," the old people said, and the tree was to be
honoured and respected--so they told all the children, even those who
had not very good heads.

And a hundred years rolled by.

It was in our own time. The lake had been converted to moorland, and
the old mansion had almost disappeared. A pool of water and the ruins
of some walls, this was all that was left of the old baronial castle,
with its deep moat; and here stood also a magnificent old willow, with
pendent boughs, which seemed to show how beautiful a tree may be if
left to itself. The main stem was certainly split from the root to the
crown, and the storm had bowed the noble tree a little; but it stood
firm for all that, and from every cleft into which wind and weather
had carried a portion of earth, grasse