ountry as far
as one could see from the highest turret belonged to this lord; but he
had not been there for twenty years, and would not have come then, only
he was very sad.

The cause of his grief was that he had been Prime Minister at Court, and
in high favour, till somebody told the Crown Prince that he had spoken
with great disrespect about the turning out of His Royal Highness's
toes, and the King that he did not lay on taxes enough; whereon the
north-country lord was turned out of office and sent to his own estate.
There he lived for some weeks in very bad temper. The servants said
nothing would please him, and the people of the village put on their
worst clothes lest he should raise their rents. But one day, in the
harvest time, his lordship chanced to meet Spare gathering watercresses
at a meadow stream, and fell into talk with the cobbler.

How it was nobody could tell, but from that hour the great lord cast
away his sadness. He forgot his lost office and his Court enemies, the
King's taxes and the Crown Prince's toes, and went about with a noble
train, hunting, fishing, and making merry in his hall, where all
travellers were well treated and all the poor were welcome.

This strange story soon spread through the north country, and a great
company came to the cobbler's hut--rich men who had lost their money,
poor men who had lost their friends, beauties who had grown old, wits
who had gone out of fashion--all came to talk with Spare, and whatever
their troubles had been, all went home merry. The rich gave him
presents, the poor gave him thanks. Spare's coat was no longer ragged,
he had bacon with his cabbage, and the people of the village began to
think there was some sense in him after all.

By this time his fame had reached the chief city of the kingdom, and
even the Court. There were a great many discontented people there
besides the King, who had lately fallen into ill humour because a
princess, who lived in a kingdom near his own, and who had seven islands
for her dowry, would not marry his eldest son. So a royal page was sent
to Spare, with a velvet cloak, a diamond ring, and a command that he
should come to Court at once.

"To-morrow is the first of April," said Spare, "and I will go with you
two hours after sunrise."

The page lodged all night at the castle, and the cuckoo came at sunrise
with the merry leaf.

"The Court is a fine place," he said, when the cobbler told him he was
going. "But I c