"The king liked the proverb; it was a compliment to his wisdom and
sagacity. It made him feel good,--so good, in fact, that it led him
one day quite to overshoot the mark in an effort that he made to
increase the people's high opinion.

"'If any one,' said he, after a good dinner,--'if any one were smart
enough to get Brownie out of his stables without my knowledge, I would
for his cleverness forgive him, and give him an estate to return the
animal.' Then he looked very wise, and felt very comfortable and very
secure. 'But,' he added, 'evil overtake the man who gets caught in an
attempt to steal my horse. Lucky will it be for him if his eyes ever
see the light of the English sun again.'

"Then the report went abroad that the man who would be so shrewd as to
get possession of the king's horse should have an estate, but that he
who failed in the attempt should lose his head.

"The English court, at this time, was at Carlisle, near the Scottish
border. The jolly harper man lived in the old town of Striveling,
since called Stirling, at some distance from the border.

"The jolly harper man, like most people of genius, was very poor. He
often played in the castles of the nobles, especially on festive
occasions; and, as he contrasted the luxurious living of these fat
lords with his own poverty, he became suddenly seized with a desire
for wealth, and he remembered the proverb, which was old even then,
that 'Where there is a will there is a way.'

"One autumn day, as he was travelling along the borders of Loch
Lomond, a famous lake in the middle of Scotland, he remembered that
there was a cave overlooking the lake from a thickly wooded hill, in
which dwelt a hermit, who often was consulted by people in perplexity,
and who bore the name of the 'Man of Wisdom.'

"He was not a wicked magician, nor did he pretend to have any dealings
with the dead. He was gifted only with what was called clearness of
vision; he could see into the secret of things, just as Zerah Colburn
could see into difficult problems of mathematics, without study.
Things that were darkness to others were as clear as sunlight to him.
He lived on roots and herbs, and flourished so wonderfully on the
diet, that what he didn't know was considered not worth knowing.

[Illustration: THE HERMIT.]

"It was near nightfall when the jolly harper man came to the famous
hill. The sun was going down in splendor, and the moon was coming up,
faint and shadowy, and turnin