Stranica 52 [52]
LABOULÁYE 5 FAIRY. BOOK
worn out by the fatigue of the day, fell asleep in the midst
of her tears.
Old women do not know how to hold their tongues, at
least in Brittany. Fimettes hostess had scarcely reached
the village when she hastened to the house of the steward.
He was an important personage, who had more than once
made her tremble when she had driven her cow into her
neighbor’s pasture by mistake. The steward listened to
the old woman’s story, shook his head, and said it looked
like witchcraft; then he mysteriously brought a pair of
scales, weighed the guineas, which he found to be genuine
and of full weight, kept as many of them as he could, and
advised the owner to tell no one of this strange adventure.
“Tf it should come to the ears of the bailiff or the seneschal,”’
said he, "the least that would happen to you, mother,
would be to lose every one of these beautiful bright guineas.
Justice 15 impartial; 1t knows neither favor nor repugnance;
it takes the whole."
The old woman thanked the steward for his advice, and
promised to follow it. She kept her word so well that she
only told her story that evening to two neighbors, her
dearest friends, both of whom swore on the heads of their
little children to keep it secret. The oath was a solemn
one, and so well kept that at noon the next day there
was not a boy of six in the village that did not point his
finger at the old woman, while the very dogs seemed to
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