de; I give
you my shadow for your purse." He grasped my hand, and knelt down behind
me, and with wonderful dexterity I perceived him loosening my shadow from
the ground from head to foot;--he lifted it up;--he rolled it together
and folded it, and at last put it into his pocket. He then stood erect,
bowed to me again, and returned back to the rose grove. I thought I
heard him laughing softly to himself. I held, however, the purse tight
by its strings--the earth was sun-bright all around me--and my senses
were still wholly confused.

CHAPTER II.

At last I came to myself, and hastened from a place where apparently I
had nothing more to do. I first filled my pockets with gold, then firmly
secured the strings of the purse round my neck, taking care to conceal
the purse itself in my bosom. I left the park unnoticed, reached the
high road, and bent my way to the town. I was walking thoughtfully
towards the gate, when I heard a voice behind me: "Holla! young Squire!
holla! don't you hear?" I looked round--an old woman was calling after
me;--"Take care, sir, take care--you have lost your shadow!"--"Thanks,
good woman."--I threw her a piece of gold for her well-meant counsel, and
walked away under the trees.

At the gate I was again condemned to hear from the sentinel, "Where has
the gentleman left his shadow?" and immediately afterwards a couple of
women exclaimed, "Good heavens! the poor fellow has no shadow!" I began
to be vexed, and carefully avoided walking in the sun. This I could not
always do: for instance, in the Broad-street, which I was next compelled
to cross; and as ill-luck would have it, at the very moment when the boys
were being released from school. A confounded hunch-backed vagabond--I
see him at this moment--had observed that I wanted a shadow. He
instantly began to bawl out to the young tyros of the suburbs, who first
criticised me, and then bespattered me with mud: "Respectable people are
accustomed to carry their shadows with them when they go into the sun." I
scattered handfuls of gold among them to divert their attention; and,
with the assistance of some compassionate souls, sprang into a hackney
coach. As soon as I found myself alone in the rolling vehicle, I began
to weep bitterly. My inward emotion suggested to me, that even as in
this world gold weighs down both merit and virtue, so a shadow might
possibly be more valuable than gold itself; and that, as I had sacrificed
my