twelve and twenty, thirteen and twenty, nineteen and twenty, said the widow. She had lost count, but still she kept on measuring.

The passage, too, became filled, so she had to go out on the grass. She measured and measured, but still the cloth grew longer, much longer than she could measure. She would not give in, but kept unceasingly at it the whole day. Towards evening the rich farmer's wife came past the cottage, and when she saw what the widow was doing she[Pg 57] stopped all at once and wondered greatly at what she saw, for such a piece of weaving no human being had surely ever seen.

"What in all the world are you doing?" she asked.

"Twenty-three, twenty-four, twenty-five! Measuring a piece of weaving," said the widow. She was far on in the thirteenth hundred.

"Where in all the world have you got such a long piece from?" asked the woman.

"Twelve and twenty, thirteen and twenty, nineteen and twenty," said the widow—she had lost count, but still she kept on measuring. "Yes, you may well ask that," she said, and went on measuring. "A man came here last night and got a night's lodging, and when he left here this morning he said that the first thing I began with I should be doing the whole day; and now I have been measuring this cloth, which seems never to come to an end."

"Oh dear! oh dear! How stupid I was! How terribly stupid I was to let him go!" said the farmer's wife; "for he came to our place also, you must know. But, my dear, if he should ever come this way again and look in upon you you might send him to me, since you have been so lucky," she said.

Yes, that she would be glad to do, said the widow. She wished other people might be just as fortunate as she herself had been, although she had nothing to thank the farmer's wife for.

Of course, the widow could not use all the cloth[Pg 58] herself, so she went to some of her neighbours to hire some oxen to cart it to town; and, just fancy, the cloth filled three cart-loads! Such a quantity of cloth had never been seen in one day in the market place; but she got rid of every yard for all that, and returned home with so much money that she had no longer any need to trouble about clothes and food.

But the rich farmer's wife went home and began to bustle about and get things ready, so that she should be able to treat the stranger in good style if he should come back to her; but she knew no more than the widow that the stranger was St. Peter.

She went about in great expectation, and dared scarcely go out of the room, so afraid was she that he should come in her absence and that she should miss him. She had bought a very fine piece of cloth and placed it on the loom, and the measure was lying on the top of it, so she was fully prepared for him; but day after day passed and week after week, and she grew angry and impatient because he was such a silly fellow not to have the sense to find his way there.

Late one evening there was a knock at the door.

The woman went out into the passage and pulled back the bolt. It was St. Peter, who asked for shelter for the night. Yes, that he should have, sure enough; and the woman curtseyed and behaved in a way that was quite ridiculous.

She then put the best she had on the table, so that he should be quite satisfied. In the morning[Pg 59] he thanked her for her kindness and the good food, and prepared to go.

Дата добавления: 2015-10-31