"To-morrow morning bright and early I'll
hitch up the donkey and visit my old friend, the Beggar!"

So the next day he took out the silver bolts and the golden horse-shoes
from the place where he had kept them hidden all these years and he put
them in a bag. Then he hitched his old donkey to his old cart and
started out to follow the silver tracks to the Beggar's home.

Well, he saw just exactly the same things that his brothers had seen
those many years before: all those terrible fighting animals and all
those unfortunate men.

"I'll have to remember and ask the Beggar what ails all these
creatures," he thought to himself.

Like his brothers he passed over the wooden bridge and the stone bridge
and the iron bridge and the copper bridge and the silver bridge and even
the golden bridge. Beyond the golden bridge he came to a Garden that was
surrounded by a high wall of diamonds and rubies and sapphires and all
kinds of precious stones that blazed as brightly as the sun itself. The
silver tracks turned in at the garden gate which was locked.

The poor man climbed down from his cart, unhitched the donkey, and set
him out to graze on the tender grass that grew by the wayside.

Then he took the bag that held the golden horse-shoes and the silver
bolts and he went to the garden gate. It was a very wonderful gate of
beaten gold set with precious stones. For a moment the Poor Man wondered
if he dare knock at so rich a gate, then he remembered that his friend
the Beggar was inside and he knew that he would be made welcome.

It was the Beggar himself who opened the gate. When he saw the Poor Man
he smiled and held out his hands and said:

"Welcome, dear friend! I have been waiting for you all these years! Come
in and I will show you my Garden."

So the Poor Man went inside. And first of all he gave the Beggar his
golden horse-shoes and his silver bolts.

"Forgive me," he said, "for keeping them so long, but I've never had
time until now to return them."

The Beggar smiled.

"I knew, dear friend, that they were safe with you and that you would
bring them some day."

Then the Beggar put his arm over the Poor Man's shoulder and led him
through the Garden showing him the wonderful golden fruits and beautiful
flowers. They sat them down beside a fountain of crystal water and while
they listened to the songs of glorious birds they talked together and
the Poor Man asked about the strange things he had seen along the road.