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saying, that the people of that village should always be prosperous as long as they were honest and industrious, and neither cruel nor greedy.

“But it is not our conduct,” said they, “which has brought all this trouble on us, for we have been neither cruel, nor dishonest, nor greedy.”

But little Handa shook her head and said, “You are very cruel, you are letting poor Ralph starve, because you will all buy your boots and shoes of the new old man. Ralph has worked well for you all his life, and now you all leave him and buy boots from the old man, just because he is “new, though you know they are not half as good as Ralph’s.”

“You are talking of what you don’t understand, Handa,” said her father, the miller, angrily. “Of course it is right for us to buy everything as cheaply as we can. Be quiet, child!” And every one was angry with Handa for speaking; but she thought just the same, and she cried when she saw Ralph, or his wife, or Siegfrid.

The fever in the village spread, and Ralph caught it, and was very ill, and had to lie in bed all day. He could not now have made boots, if any one had come to buy them of him. At