ngly. At last we came to a
common-looking house set back from the road, with a very high fence
built around it and a heavy padlock on the front gate. There were great
strong wooden shutters at every window. My master entered the house and
set me down on the floor, then went to the door and locked it, drawing
two large iron bars across it. He went to every window to see if it was
fastened.

Carrying a candle in one hand and a great bludgeon in the other, he
examined every room, every closet, the attic, and the cellar. After this
he came back to me, set me on a table, started one of my hoops, and took
out one of my heads. From a cupboard he got a large sheepskin, and with
a pair of shears fitted me with a lining of it. I must say that he did
it with cleverness, and he seemed well pleased with his work.

"When he had done all this, he brought his bludgeon and laid it on the
table beside me; also he laid there a large knife. Then he went to the
chimney and brought the ash-pail, which was full of ashes; from the
cupboard he brought an earthen jar; from under the bed he fetched a bag;
from the cellar he returned with a sack, all damp and moldy. When he had
all these side by side near the table, he sat down. Then out of the
ash-pail he took a small pot, and having carefully blown the ashes off,
he turned it bottom-upward on the table. And what do you think was in
it?

"Gold coins! Some red and some yellow, but all gold!

"He emptied each of the other receptacles, and out there flowed heaps of
gold coins almost without number! How they gleamed and glistened! How
they clinked and jingled! And how the deep and narrow eyes of my master
glittered, but how the lips drew apart in a wild smile!

"It was a fearful sight to see him playing with the gold and to hear him
laugh over his treasure. It was dreadful to think that a human soul
could love money so. And he did love it--madly, with all the strength of
his nature.

"He would take up a coin and look at it as a father might look upon the
face of a favorite child. Ah, me, 'twas dreadful! He would take up a
piece and say to it, 'Thou art better to me than a wife'; and to
another, 'Thou art dearer than father or mother!' Ah, such blasphemy as
I heard that night! How the sweet and blessed things of human life were
derided, and the things that are divine and holy sneered at!

"At length he fell to counting his gold; and for a long, long time he
counted, until his hands shook, and