At the edge of a market town lived a young man in a low white cottage with a reed roof. Behind the cottage stood a pear tree, and beside the door lay his spade, his hoe, and a bundle of willow rope. He was poor, but his coat was always brushed and his boots neatly mended. Each morning, he went out to work with a straight back.
One autumn day, he spent the long, light hours working in the king's orchard. He dug around the roots of the trees and lifted fallen branches into neat piles. When the shadows stretched thin and blue across the grass, the steward counted three pennies into his palm. The young man closed his fingers over the coins and started home by the road that ran under the castle hill.
The king was riding back from the river with only one servant behind him, and his horse slowed near the young man. The king had seen him often at work and knew the steady way he moved. "What have you earned today?" the king asked. "Three pennies, Your Majesty," said the young man, opening his hand to show them.
The king looked at the three dull coins lying on the brown palm. "And how will you spend them?" he asked. The young man answered at once, as if the pennies had already found their places. "One I use to repay a debt, one I lend, and one I throw away."
The king gathered his reins …
6 chapters
