"There it is,
and look in it."
So the elder brother looked in the mirror, and he was sore amazed;
for he was an old man, and his hair was white upon his head; and he
sat down in the hall and wept aloud.
"Now," said the younger brother, "see what a fool's part you have
played, that ran over all the world to seek what was lying in our
father's treasury, and came back an old carle for the dogs to bark
at, and without chick or child. And I that was dutiful and wise
sit here crowned with virtues and pleasures, and happy in the light
of my hearth."
"Methinks you have a cruel tongue," said the elder brother; and he
pulled out the clear pebble and turned its light on his brother;
and behold the man was lying, his soul was shrunk into the
smallness of a pea, and his heart was a bag of little fears like
scorpions, and love was dead in his bosom. And at that the elder
brother cried out aloud, and turned the light of the pebble on the
maid, and, lo! she was but a mask of a woman, and withinside's she
was quite dead, and she smiled as a clock ticks, and knew not
wherefore.
"Oh, well," said the elder brother, "I perceive there is both good
and bad. So fare ye all as well as ye may in the dun; but I will
go forth into the world with my pebble in my pocket."
XIX. - THE POOR THING.
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