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24 to say the same thing to him, when he came to himself and found himself alone. There was a death-like sweat upon him, and terror in his eyes, but all the same, whatever he said, the first thing he did was to put his hand into his pocket to see if he had the purse, and upon my word he had. It was there, in the same pocket that he had put it in, and it was fine and plump, and fine and heavy.

He put his hand into another of his pockets, and there he found the two hundred pounds that had been given to him in exchange for the two shillings.

"If I had only let him go on that time," said he to himself, "I should have three hundred; but that makes no difference, for I heard him say that the purse would be always full, in spite of what was taken out of it."

He put the money back in his pocket, and put up the purse neatly and carefully in the inside-pocket of his waistcoat. Then he stood up and shook himself, and I promise you that the remembrance of the fright was soon gone from him.

"Well," said he, "I must buy a horse, and not be killing myself going to Mass on foot every Sunday and holy day. And I must buy a cow and not be depending on one of those little apples to take away my thirst. And indeed I suppose I shall have to marry, for how could I milk the cow myself? But whatever I may do, I must eat something now. I haven't been so hungry for a year!"

He looked up at the malvogue and at the chair, and upon my word he felt a sort of fear about going near them. He looked carefully at the ground all round the chair, and when he did, there he saw quite plainly the mark of the thumb. He thought that even still