ever fallen in his way, and he
was not for spoiling it by cutting it in two to give half to a poor
beggar-man such as his brother. Not he; he would hide it and keep it all
for his very own.

Now, not far from where he lived, and beside the river, stood a
willow-tree, and thither the lucky beggar took his purse of money and
stuffed it into a knot-hole of a withered branch, then went his
way, certain that nobody would think of looking for money in such a
hiding-place. Then all the rest of the day he sat thinking and thinking
of the ways he would spend what had been given him, and what he would do
to get the most good out of it. At last came evening, and his brother,
who had been begging in another part of the town, came home again.

"I nearly lost my hat to-day," said the second beggar so soon as he had
come into the house.

"Did you?" said the first beggar. "How was that?"

"Oh! The wind blew it off into the water, but I got it again."

"How did you get it?" said the first beggar.

"I just broke a dead branch off of the willow-tree and drew my hat
ashore," said the second beggar.

"A dead branch!!"

"A dead branch."

"Off of the willow tree!!"

"Off of the willow tree."

The first beggar could hardly breathe.

"And what did you do with the dead branch after that?"

"I threw it away into the water, and it floated down the river."

The beggar to whom the money had been given ran out of the house
howling, and down to the river-side, thumping his head with his knuckles
like one possessed. For he knew that the branch his brother had broken
off of the tree and had thrown into the water, was the very one in which
he had hidden the bag of money.

Yes; and so it was.

The next morning, as the rich man took a walk down by the river, he saw
a dead branch that had been washed up by the tide. "Halloo!" says he,
"this will do to kindle the fire with."

So he brought it to the house, and, taking down his axe, began to split
it up for kindling. The very first blow he gave, out tumbled the bag of
money.

But the beggar--well, by-and-by his grieving got better of its first
smart, and then he started off down the river to see if he could not
find his money again. He hunted up and he hunted down, but never a whit
of it did he see, and at last he stopped at the rich man's house and
begged for a bite to eat and lodgings for the night. There he told all
his story--how he had hidden the money that had been given him from