to catch sight here and there of twinkling, flashing lights, like
little fires, that moved and sparkled all about, and wondered what
they were. Presently he saw one so close to him that he reached out
his hand and grasped it, and found that it was a sparkling red stone,
scarcely smaller than a walnut. He opened a corner of his loin-cloth
and tied the stone in it; and by-and-by he got another, and then a
third, and a fourth, all of which he tied up carefully in his cloth.
At last, just as the day was breaking, the tree rose, and, flying
rapidly through the air, was deposited once more by the well where it
had stood the previous evening.

When Dena had recovered a little from the fright which the
extraordinary antics of the tree had caused him, he began to thank
Providence that he was alive, and, as his love of wandering had been
quite cured, he made his way back to the city and to his own house.
Here he was met and soundly scolded by his wife, who assailed him with
a hundred questions and reproaches. As soon as she paused for breath,
Dena replied:

'I have only this one thing to say, just look what I have got!' And,
after carefully shutting all the doors, he opened the corner of his
loin-cloth and showed her the four stones, which glittered and flashed
as he turned them over and over.

'Pooh!' said his wife, 'the silly pebbles! If it was something to eat,
now, there'd be some sense in them; but what's the good of _such_
things?' And she turned away with a sniff, for it had happened that
the night before, when Lena had come round as usual to storm at Dena,
he had been rather disturbed to find that his victim was from home,
and had frightened the poor woman by his threats. Directly, however,
he heard that Dena had come back, Lena appeared in the doorway. For
some minutes he talked to the oil-seller at the top of his voice,
until he was tired, then Dena said:

'If your honour would deign to walk into my humble dwelling, I will
speak.'

So Lena walked in, and the other, shutting as before all the doors,
untied the corner of his loin-cloth and showed him the four great
flashing stones.

'This is all,' said he, 'that I have in the world to set against my
debt, for, as your honour knows, I haven't a penny, but the stones are
pretty!'

Now Lena looked and saw at once that these were magnificent rubies,
and his mouth watered for them; but as it would never do to show what
was in his mind, he went on:

'What do I car