But we tell you one thing, speaking
with many voices like bees, that the way is plain before all like
the grooves of launching: So forth into life and fear not, for so
did we all in the ancient ages." And their voices passed away like
an eddy in a river.
"Now," said the Poor Thing, "they have told you a lesson, but make
them give you a gift. Stoop your hand among the bones without
drawback, and you shall find their treasure."
So the man stooped his hand, and the dead laid hold upon it many
and faint like ants; but he shook them off, and behold, what he
brought up in his hand was the shoe of a horse, and it was rusty.
"It is a thing of no price," quoth the man, "for it is rusty."
"We shall see that," said the Poor Thing; "for in my thought it is
a good thing to do what our fathers did, and to keep what they kept
without question. And in my thought one thing is as good as
another in this world; and a shoe of a horse will do."
Now they got into their boat with the horseshoe, and when the dawn
was come they were aware of the smoke of the Earl's town and the
bells of the Kirk that beat. So they set foot to shore; and the
man went up to the market among the fishers over against the palace
and the Kirk; and he was bitter poor and bitter ugly, and he had
never a fish to sell, but only a shoe of a horse in his creel, and
it rusty.
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