Page:The shoemaker's apron (1920).djvu/213

 had consented to deliver to their son in heaven three hundred golden ducats and material for six fine shirts.

“What!” cried the husband. “Oh, what a gullible creature you are! Who ever heard of a man falling out of heaven! And if he were to fall, how could he climb back? The rogue has swindled you! Which way did he go?”

And without waiting to hear the poor lady’s lamentations, the nobleman mounted his horse and galloped off in the direction the laborer had taken.

The laborer, who was still resting by the wayside, saw him coming and guessed who he was.

“Now, my lord, we’ll try you,” he said to himself.

He took off his broad-trimmed hat and put it on the ground beside him over a clod of earth.

“My good fellow,” said the nobleman, “I am looking for a man with a bundle over his shoulder. Have you seen him pass this way?”

The laborer scratched his head and pretended to think.

“Yes, master,” he said, “seems to me I did see a man with a bundle. He was running over there towards the woods and looking back all the time. He was a stranger to these parts. I remember now thinking to myself that he looked like one of those rogues