The Charcoal-Burner. 311 his life wasn't worth much. Now it so happened, that it was three of the king's servants who waited upon him day by day in turn that had stolen the ring between them. So one day, when one of the servants came into his room and cleared away the table after supper, and was just about leaving the room, the charcoal-burner heaved a deep sigh and looked after him and said : " There goes the first of them " ; but he only meant the first of the three days he still had to live. " This parson knows all about it," said the servant, when he got his comrades by themselves, and told them that the parson had said, * that he was the first of them." The second servant, who was to wait upon him the next day, was to notice what he would say then, and sure enough, as he was going out after håving cleared the table, the charcoal-burner gazed steadily at him, sighed and said : " There goes the second of them." So the third servant was to observe what happened the third day; it got worse and worse he thought, for when the servant came to the door and was going out with all the plates and dishes, the charcoal-burner folded his hands and said : " There goes the third of them," and then he sighed as if his heart would break. The servant came breathlessly out to his comrades and told them it was clear enough that the parson knew all about it, and so they went into his room and fell on their knees before him, and prayed and begged of him, that he would not tell it was they who had tåken the ring ; they would gi ve him a hundred dollars each, if he only would not bring them into trouble. He promised faithfully, that no one should get into trouble if he got the money, the ring, and a lump of porridge. He put the ring into the porridge, and told one of them to give it to the biggest pig belonging to the king. Next morning the king came ; it was easy to see he would not be played with j he would know all about the thief. " Well, I have written and reckoned far and wide," said the char cqal-burner, " but I find it's not a man who has stolen the ring."
