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THE GARDEN OF PARADISE 163
sat by his side : she looked angry, and raised her arm in the air. **<
1 The very first evening ! ' said she. ' I thought it would be so ! Yes, if you were my son, you would have to go into the sack ! '
' Yes, he shall go in there ! ' said Death. He was a strong old man, with a scythe in his hand, and with great black wings. ' Yes, he shall be laid in his coffin, but not yet: I only register him, and let him wander awhile in the world to expiate his sins and to grow better.. But one day I shall come. When he least expects it, I shall clap him in the black coffin, put him on my head, and fly up towards the star. There, too, blooms the Garden of Paradise ; and if he is good and pious he will go in there ; but if his thoughts are evil, and his heart still full of sin, he will sink with his coffin deeper than Paradise has sunk, and only every thousandth year I shall fetch him, that he may sink deeper, or that he may attain to the star—the shining star up yonder !' |
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THE FLYING TRUNK
There was once a merchant, who was so rich that he could pave the whole street with silver coins, and almost have enough left for a little lane. But he did not do that; he knew how to employ his money differently. When he spent a shilling he got back a crown, such a clever merchant was he ; and this continued till he died.
His son now got all this money; and he lived merrily, going to the masquerade every evening, making kites out of dollar notes, and playing at ducks and drakes on the sea coast with gold pieces instead of pebbles. In this way the money might soon be spent, and indeed it was so. At last he had no more than four shillings left, and no clothes to wear but a pair of slippers and an old dressing-gown. Now his friends did not trouble themselves any more about him, as they could not walk with him in the street; but one of them, who was good-natured, sent him an old trunk, with the remark, ' Pack up ! ' Yes, that was all very well, |
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