THE KNAPSACK
"What ails you?" asked the soldier, seeing that both his sweetheart and her mother looked careworn and sorrowful. They told him how the wealthy man defrauded them on all occasions, so that they could hardly gain their daily bread. They owed him a large amount of money, and on the following day it must be paid. "Let him come!" exclaimed their friend; "he shall have it all." At the same moment he said to himself, "I wish my knapsack was filled with the covetous squire's gold."
They now sat down to the scanty meal which had in the mean time been prepared by the girl, who could not help wondering how they would be able to pay the debts which had long been resting heavily upon their minds. At length they arose, whereupon the soldier placed his knapsack on the table and loosened the straps. The old shirt and the stockings without heels rolled out when he opened it, and the space beneath them was filled with more gold and silver than the king had ever had, at any one time, in his treasury.
"Hoorah!" shouted the soldier. "Let him come; he will open his eyes when he sees the gold and silver, and yet he will not dream that he is paid with his own money." The women now took what they needed, the rest was stowed away in a drawer, and the young man went to town for the purpose of buying some new clothes for himself, as he desired to be married as soon as possible to the girl
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