sell the cargo to the inhabitants of central Egypt. It happened to have
been a good year for the farmer and Fish got a great deal of money for
his wheat. After ten days the boat returned to the homestead and the
captain handed the money which he had received to his employer.

A few weeks later, Mr. Sparrow, whose farm was next to that of Fish,
sent his wheat to the nearest market. Poor Sparrow had not been very
lucky for the last few years. But he hoped to make up for his recent
losses by a profitable sale of his grain. Therefore he had waited until
the price of wheat in Memphis should have gone a little higher.

That morning a rumor had reached the village of a famine in the island
of Crete. As a result the grain in the Egyptian markets had greatly
increased in value.

Sparrow hoped to profit through this unexpected turn of the market and
he bade his skipper to hurry.

The skipper handled the rudder of his craft so clumsily that the boat
struck a rock and sank, drowning the mate who was caught under the sail.

Sparrow not only lost all his grain and his ship but he was also forced
to pay the widow of his drowned mate ten pieces of gold to make up for
the loss of her husband.

These disasters occurred at the very moment when Sparrow could not
afford another loss.

Winter was near and he had no money to buy cloaks for his children. He
had put off buying new hoes and spades for such a long time that the old