Page:Tales of old Lusitania.djvu/168

152 but because while the wheel of fortune turns round it is all right, but the moment it begins to stop, it will never turn again. It is thirty years since I gave my daughter away; for thirty years I have not once given alms; and to-day is the first time since then that I have had a loss, though it is only of an egg."

The men lay down to sleep, and after a while one said to the other, "Are you asleep?"

"Nay, I have not slept a wink yet. I am thinking we had better get away from here—the sooner the better; for a house where no alms have been given, and where the people have had no loss for thirty years until to-day, some misfortune is sure to happen to it before very long."

His companion replied to this, "Where can we go now to sleep? It is too late to find any place open."

"It is no matter where we go, so long as we get away, even if we find no better shelter than a wall."

They rose up quickly, and quietly left the house, and proceeded to where there was a wall near some houses, and, crouching under it, settled themselves to sleep as well as they could. During the darkness of the night they were startled by hearing a loud crash, and one said to the other, "Did you hear that tremendous uproar?"

"I did, indeed," replied the other beggar. "You may take it for a certainty that that man's house has tumbled down about his ears."