The Peasant’s Story
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Ebbutt, M. I. (Maud Isabel)
“They do not come, O Countess, because they are no longer starving. They have better food and wine, and abundance of money to buy more.”
The peasant’s story
“Whence then have they obtained the money, the food, and the wine for the drinking-bouts, the tumult of which reaches me even in my oratory?”
“Lady, they have received all from the generous merchants who are in the forest dwelling where old Mairi formerly lived; she is dead now, and these noble strangers keep open house in her cottage night and day; they are so wealthy that they need not stint their bounty, and so powerful that they can find good food, enough for all who go to them. Since Brigit died (your old servant, lady) her husband and son work no more, but serve the strange merchants, and urge men to join them; and I, and many others, have done so, and we are now wealthy” (here he showed the Countess a handful of gold) “and well fed, and have wine as much as heart can desire.”
“But do you give them nothing in return for all their generosity? Are they so noble that they ask nothing in requital of their bounty?”