Page:Segnius Irritant or Eight Primitive Folk-lore Stories.pdf/73



there was a gamekeeper who had a son who was also a gamekeeper. He sent him into a foreign land to see the world and learn a little more. Here he comes to an ale-house where he finds a strange man, with whom he enters into conversation. And the two discourse together on all sorts of topics, until at last they begin to talk in earnest. And the stranger said that it was possible, with the help of money, to make even the most unrighteous thing right. The gamekeeper, on the other hand, maintained that right after all remained right, and said that as a foreigner he was willing to stake three hundred dollars on it. The stranger was quite satisfied with this arrangement, and the two agreed to ask the opinion of three advocates in the matter. The two go to the first advocate, and he says that it is possible for money to turn wrong into right. Then the two go to the next one. He also says that, for money, wrong can be turned into right. Finally, the two go to the third. And he also tells the pair that it is possible for money to make wrong right. After this the two go home again together, and as they had been walking about the whole day, they reached the ale-house quite late in the evening. The stranger then asks the gamekeeper whether he does not now believe that it is possible for the most unrighteous act to be made right with the help of money, and the gamekeeper replies that he must almost believe it, according to the ruling of the three legal gentlemen, although it still did not seem true to him. The stranger was willing to leave him his head provided he paid the three hundred dollars; but just as the two were talking it over, another man arrived, who suggested to the stranger that he ought to stand by the arrangement they had made together at first. However, he does not do so, but just deprives the gamekeeper of the light of his eyes with a red hot iron, observing at the same time that he, too, will believe that right remains right in the world when the gamekeeper gets his sight again.