wish you would take this little bag of
money to the Chief Villager and tell him that Old Pipes cannot receive
pay for the services which he does not perform. It is now more than a
year that I have not been able to make the cattle hear me, when I piped
to call them home. I did not know this until to-night; but now that I
know it, I cannot keep the money, and so I send it back." And, handing
the little bag to the Dryad, he bade her good-night, and turned toward
his cottage.

"Good-night," said the Dryad. "And I thank you over, and over, and over
again, you good old man!"

Old Pipes walked toward his home, very glad to be saved the fatigue of
going all the way down to the village and back again. "To be sure," he
said to himself, "this path does not seem at all steep, and I can walk
along it very easily; but it would have tired me dreadfully to come up
all the way from the village, especially as I could not have expected
those children to help me again." When he reached home his mother was
surprised to see him returning so soon.

"What!" she exclaimed; "have you already come back? What did the Chief
Villager say? Did he take the money?"

Old Pipes was just about to tell her that he had sent the money to the
village by a Dryad, when he suddenly reflected that his mother would be
sure to disapprove such a proceeding, and so he merely said he had sent
it by a person whom he had met.

"And how do you know that the person will ever take it to the Chief
Villager?" cried his mother. "You will lose it, and the villagers will
never get it. Oh, Pipes! Pipes! when will you be old enough to have
ordinary common-sense?"

Old Pipes considered that, as he was already seventy years of age, he
could scarcely expect to grow any wiser; but he made no remark on this
subject, and, saying that he doubted not that the money would go safely
to its destination, he sat down to his supper. His mother scolded him
roundly, but he did not mind it; and after supper he went out and sat on
a rustic chair in front of the cottage to look at the moonlit village,
and to wonder whether or not the Chief Villager really received the
money. While he was doing these two things, he went fast asleep.

When Old Pipes left the Dryad, she did not go down to the village with
the little bag of money. She held it in her hand, and thought about what
she had heard. "This is a good and honest old man," she said; "and it is
a shame that he should lose this money. He lo