was true) of a quantity of coins of Edward the
Confessor and Harold being dug up in a field respecting which there was
a tradition in the neighbourhood that a great treasure was concealed in
it. In Esthonian as well as in Oriental tales, hidden treasures are
usually under the care of non-human guardians, even when it is not said
that they were specially placed under their protection. This notion
probably persists in many countries to the present day. It is said that
when Kidd, the famous pirate, buried a hoard of treasure, he used to
slaughter a negro at the place, that the ghost might guard it. Stories
of his hidden treasure (more or less probable) are still rife in
America.

THE COURAGEOUS BARN-KEEPER.

(KREUTZWALD.)

Once upon a time there lived a barn-keeper who had few to equal him in
courage. The Old Boy himself admitted that a bolder man had never yet
appeared on earth. In the evening, when the threshers were no longer at
work in the barn, he often paid a visit to the barn-keeper, and never
tired of talking with him. He was under the impression that the
barn-keeper did not recognise him, and supposed him to be only an
ordinary peasant; but his host knew him well enough, though he pretended
not, and had made up his mind to box Old Hornie's ears if he could. One
evening the Old Boy began to complain of the hard life of a bachelor,
and how he had nobody to knit him a pair of stockings or to hem a
handkerchief. The barn-keeper answered, "Why don't you go a-wooing, my
brother?" The Old Boy returned, "I've tried my luck often enough, but
the girls won't have me. The younger and prettier they are, the more
they laugh at me."

The barn-keeper advised him to court old maids or widows, who would be
much easier to win, and who would not be so likely to despise a suitor.
The Old Boy took his advice, and some weeks afterwards married an old
maid; but it was not long before he came back to the barn-keeper to
complain of his troubles. His newly-married wife was full of tricks; she
left him no rest night or day, and tormented him continually. "What sort
of a man are you," laughed the barn-keeper, "to allow your wife to wear
the trousers? If you marry a wife, you must take care to be master." The
Old Boy answered, "I couldn't manage her. If she chose to bring anybody
else into the house, I couldn't venture to set foot in it." The
barn-keeper sought to comfort him, and advised him to try his luck
elsewhere; but the Ol