ything,
except how to mend their own hose and where to get cabbage to boil in
the pot.

And now they were to go out into the world to practice what they knew.
The master called the three students to him--the one named Joseph, the
second named John, and the third named Jacob Stuck--and said he to them,
said he: "You have studied faithfully and have learned all that I have
been able to teach you, and now you shall not go out into the world with
nothing at all. See; here are three glass balls, and that is one for
each of you. Their like is not to be found in the four corners of the
world. Carry the balls wherever you go, and when one of them drops to
the ground, dig, and there you will certainly find a treasure."

So the three students went out into the wide world.

Well, they travelled on and on for day after day, each carrying his
glass ball with him wherever he went. They travelled on and on for I
cannot tell how long, until one day the ball that Joseph carried slipped
out of his fingers and fell to the ground. "I've found a treasure!"
cried Joseph, "I've found a treasure!"

The three students fell to work scratching and digging where the ball
had fallen, and by-and-by they found something. It was a chest with an
iron ring in the lid. It took all three of them to haul it up out of
the ground, and when they did so they found it was full to the brim of
silver money.

Were they happy? Well, they were happy! They danced around and around
the chest, for they had never seen so much money in all their lives
before. "Brothers," said Joseph, in exultation, "here is enough for all
hands, and it shall be share and share alike with us, for haven't we
studied seven long years together?" And so for a while they were as
happy as happy could be.

But by-and-by a flock of second thoughts began to buzz in the heads
of John and Jacob Stuck. "Why," said they, "as for that, to be sure, a
chest of silver money is a great thing for three students to find who
had nothing better than book-learning to help them along; but who knows
but that there is something better even than silver money out in the
wide world?" So, after all, and in spite of the chest of silver money
they had found, the two of them were for going on to try their fortunes
a little farther. And as for Joseph, why, after all, when he came to
think of it, he was not sorry to have his chest of silver money all to
himself.

So the two travelled on and on for a while, here an