'
'Good woman,' replied King Beder, 'I am heartily sorry I cannot
comply with your request: my mare is not to be sold.'
'Alas! sir,' continued the old woman, 'do not refuse me this
favour. My son and I will certainly die with grief if you do not
grant it.'
'Good mother,' replied the king, 'I would grant it with all my
heart, if I was disposed to part with so good a beast; but if I
were so disposed, I believe you would hardly give a thousand pieces
of gold for her, and I could not sell her for less.'
'Why should I not give so much?' replied the old woman: 'if that be
the lowest price, you need only say you will take it, and I will
fetch you the money.'
King Beder, seeing the old woman so poorly dressed, could not
imagine she could find the money; therefore to try her, he said,
'Go, fetch me the money, and the mare is yours.' The old woman
immediately unloosed a purse she had fastened to her girdle, and
desiring him to alight, bade him tell over the money, and in case
he found it came short of the sum demanded, she said her house was
not far off, and she could quickly fetch the rest.
The surprise of King Beder, at the sight of this purse, was not
small. 'Good woman,' said he, 'do you not perceive I have been
bantering you all this while? I assure you my mare is not to be
sold.
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