he stood alone in the woods, and the gyve was loosened from his
leg.

"Well," said he, "the enchanter is now dead, and the fetter gone."
But the cries rang in his soul, and the day was like night to him.
"This has been a sore business," said he. "Let me get forth out of
the wood, and see the good that I have done to others."

He thought to leave the fetter where it lay, but when he turned to
go, his mind was otherwise. So he stooped and put the gyve in his
bosom; and the rough iron galled him as he went, and his bosom
bled.

Now when he was forth of the wood upon the highway, he met folk
returning from the field; and those he met had no fetter on the
right leg, but, behold! they had one upon the left. Jack asked
them what it signified; and they said, "that was the new wear, for
the old was found to be a superstition". Then he looked at them
nearly; and there was a new ulcer on the left ankle, and the old
one on the right was not yet healed.

"Now, may God forgive me!" cried Jack. "I would I were well home."

And when he was home, there lay his uncle smitten on the head, and
his father pierced through the heart, and his mother cloven through
the midst. And he sat in the lone house and wept beside the
bodies.


MORAL.