Atondido Stories
"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 look-
ing back all the time. He was a stranger to these parts. I remem-
ber now thinking to myself that he looked like one of those
rogues that come from big cities to swindle honest country folk.
Yes, master, that's the way he went, over there."
The laborer seemed such an honest simple fellow that at once
the nobleman told him how the stranger had swindled his wife.
"Oh, the rogue!" the laborer cried. "To think of his swindling
such a fine lady, too! Master, I wish I could help you. I'd take
that horse of yours and go after him myself if I could. But I can't.
I'm carrying a bird of great value to a gentleman who lives in the
next town. I have the bird here under my hat and I daren't leave
it."
The nobleman thought that as the laborer had seen the swin-
dler he might be able to catch him. So he said:
"My good man, if I sat here and guarded your hat, would
you be willing to mount my horse and follow that rascal?"
"Indeed I would, my lord, in a minute, for I can't bear to
think of that rogue swindling such a fine lady as your wife. But I
must beg you to be very careful of this bird. Don't put your hand
under my hat or it might escape and then I should have to bear
the loss of it."
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