my shoeing. Since Saturday ended in success, I suppose
I shall now finish the business without more ado."

He was, however, too hopeful as it appeared, for though he managed to
fashion a shoe which was in his eyes the equal of the other, the Lad
was captious and would not commend it.

"I should be an ill craftmaster," said he, "if I let you rest content
on what you have already done. I made such a shoe as this on my
thirteenth birthday, and my father's only praise was, You must do
better yet.'"

So particular was the young smith that William spent the whole of
another week in endeavoring to please him. This might have chafed the
King, but that it agreed entirely with his desires to remain in that
place, sleeping and eating at no cost to himself, and working so
strenuously that his hands grew almost as hard as the metal he worked
in; for the Lad now began to entrust him with small jobs of various
sorts, although in the matter of the second shoe he refused to be
satisfied.

When Saturday came, however, the King contrived a shoe so much superior
to any he had yet made that the Lad, examining it, was compelled to
say, "It is better than the other." Then Pepper, who always stood in a
noose beside the door awaiting her moment, lifted up her near forefoot
of her own accord, and the King took it in his hand.

"How odd!" he exclaimed a moment later. "The nag has a stone in this
foot also. It is not strange that she went so ill."

"It is not a stone," said the Lad. "It is a pearl."

And he held out to the King a pearl of such a shining purity that it
was as though it had been rounded within the spirit of a saint.

"This makes you a rich man," said the Lad moodily, "and you can journey
whither you please."

But the King shook his head. "Keep it," he said, "for you have lodged
me for a week, and I have given you only the clumsy service of my
hands."

"Very well," said the Lad simply, and put the pearl in his pocket. "My
Great-Aunt is expecting me. There's a cake in the larder."

So saying he walked off, and the King was left alone. As before, he
bathed himself and changed his linen, and left the contents of the
larder untouched; and an hour before sunset he climbed the hill for the
second time, and presently stood panting on the edge of the Ring. And
again a pang of wonder that was akin to pain shot through his heart at
the loveliness of the world below him.

"Beautiful earth!" he cried once more, "how fair and dear