gained the high road, and took the way to the town. As I was
thoughtfully approaching the gate, I heard some one behind me
exclaiming, "Young man! young man! you have lost your shadow!" I
turned, and perceived an old woman calling after me. "Thank you, my
good woman," said I; and throwing her a piece of gold for her well-
intended information, I stepped under the trees. At the gate,
again, it was my fate to hear the sentry inquiring where the
gentleman had left his shadow; and immediately I heard a couple of
women exclaiming, "Jesu Maria! the poor man has no shadow." All
this began to depress me, and I carefully avoided walking in the
sun; but this could not everywhere be the case: for in the next
broad street I had to cross, and, unfortunately for me, at the very
hour in which the boys were coming out of school, a humpbacked lout
of a fellow--I see him yet--soon made the discovery that I was
without a shadow, and communicated the news, with loud outcries, to
a knot of young urchins. The whole swarm proceeded immediately to
reconnoitre me, and to pelt me with mud. "People," cried they, "are
generally accustomed to take their shadows with them when they walk
in the sunshine."

In order to drive them away I threw gold by handfuls among them, and
sprang into a hackney-coach which some compassionate spectators sent
to my rescue.

As soon as I found myself alone in the rolling vehicle I began to
weep bitterly. I had by this time a misgiving that, in the same
degree in which gold in this world prevails over merit and virtue,
by so much one's shadow excels gold; and now that I had sacrificed
my conscience for riches, and given my shadow in exchange for mere
gold, what on earth would become of me?