ld devise a more considered way.
Let each man bring one piece of merchandise."

"Ah, sirs!" replied the hostess, "then your compassion, your gold and
your goodwill are of no avail. Think you, after all these weary
months, that any man has merchandise left to sell? They have sold long
ago all but the very clothes they wear, to keep themselves alive till
better days come. Such offers are mockery of our distress."

"We mock you not," said the elder merchant. "All men have the one
precious thing we wish to buy, and have come hither to find; none has
already lost or sold it."

"What precious treasure can you mean? Men in Ireland now have only
their lives, and can barely cherish those," said the poor woman,
wondering greatly and much afraid.

Buyers of Souls

The elder merchant continued gazing at her with a crafty smile and an
eye ever on the alert for tokens of understanding. "Poor as they are,
Irishmen have still one thing that we will purchase, if they will
sell: their souls, which we have come to obtain for our mighty Prince,
and with the great price that we shall pay in pure gold men can well
save their lives till the starving time is over. Why should men die a
cruel, lingering death or drag through weary months of miserable
half-satisfied life when they may live well and merrily at the cost of
a soul, which is no good but to cause fear and pain? We take men's
souls and liberate them from all pain and care and remorse, and we
give in exchange money, much money, to procure comforts and ease; we
enrol men as vassals of our great lord, and he is no hard taskmaster
to those who own his sway."

Slow Trade at First

When the poor widow heard these dreadful words she knew that the
strangers were demons come to tempt men's souls and to lure them to
Hell. She crossed herself, and fled from them in fear, praying to be
kept from temptation; and she would not return to her little cottage
in the forest, but stayed in the village warning men against the evil
demons who were tempting the starving people, till she too died of the
famine, and her house was left wholly to the strangers. Yet the
merchants fared ever well, better than before her departure, and those
who ventured to the forest dwelling found good food and rich wine,
which the strangers sometimes gave to their visitors, with crafty
hints of abundance to be easily obtained. Then when timid individuals
asked the way to win these comforts the strangers began th