close the forge and go to visit my Great-Aunt. I will be
work again on Monday, till when you must shift for yourself."

The King could hardly believe his luck in having matters so well
settled, and he spent the morning so diligently that by noon he had
produced a shoe which, if not that of a master-craftsman, was at least
adaptable to the purpose for which it had been fashioned.

The Lad examined it and said reluctantly, "It will do," and proceeded
to show the King how to fasten it to Pepper's hoof.

"Why," said the King, having the nag's off forefoot in his hand,
"here's a stone in it. Small wonder she limped."

"It isn't a stone," said the Lad, extracting it, "it is a ruby."

And he exhibited to the King a ruby of such a glowing red that it was
as though the souls of all the grapes of Burgundy had been pressed to
create it.

"You are a rich man now," said the Lad quietly, "and can live as you
will."

But William closed the Lad's fingers over the stone. "Keep it," he
said, "for you have filled me for a week, and I have paid you with
nothing but my breath."

"As you please," said the Lad carelessly, and, tossing the stone upon a
shelf, locked up the forge. "Now I am going to my Great-Aunt. There's a
cake in the larder."

So saying, he strolled away, and the King was left to his own devices.
These consisted in bathing himself from head to foot till his body was
as pure without as he desired his heart to be within; and in donning
his fresh suit of linen. He would not break his fast, but waited,
trembling and eager, till an hour before sundown, and then at last he
set forth to mount the great hill with the sacred crown of trees upon
its crest.

When at last he stood upon the boundary of the Ring, his heart sprang
for joy in his breast, and his breath nearly failed him with amazement
at the beauty of the world which lay outspread for leagues below him.

"Oh, lovely earth!" he cried aloud, "never till now have I known what
beauty I lived in. How is it that we cannot see the wonder of our
surroundings until we gaze upon them from afar? But if you look so fair
from the hilltops, what must you appear from the very sky?" And lost in
delight he turned his eyes upward, and was recalled to his senses by
the sight of the sinking sun. "Lovely one, how nearly you have betrayed
me!" he said, and smiling waved his hand to the dear earth, sealed up
his lips, and entered the Ring.

And here between two midmost beeches he kn