Were they happy? Well, they were happy! They danced around and around
the chest, for they had never seen so much money in all their lives
before. “Brothers,” said Joseph, in exultation, “here is enough for all
hands, and it shall be share and share alike with us, for haven’t we
studied seven long years together?” And so for a while they were as
happy as happy could be.
But by-and-by a flock of second thoughts began to buzz in the heads
of John and Jacob Stuck. “Why,” said they, “as for that, to be sure, a
chest of silver money is a great thing for three students to find who
had nothing better than book-learning to help them along; but who knows
but that there is something better even than silver money out in the
wide world?” So, after all, and in spite of the chest of silver money
they had found, the two of them were for going on to try their fortunes
a little farther. And as for Joseph, why, after all, when he came to
think of it, he was not sorry to have his chest of silver money all to
himself.
So the two travelled on and on for a while, here and there and
everywhere, until at last it was John’s ball that slipped out of his
fingers and fell to the ground. They digged where it fell, and this time
it was a chest of gold money they found.
Yes, a chest of gold money! A chest of real gold money! They just stood
and stared and stared, for if they had not seen it they would not have
believed that such a thing could have been in the world. “Well, Jacob
Stuck,” said John, “it was well to travel a bit farther than poor Joseph
did, was it not? What is a chest of silver money to such a treasure as
this? Come, brother, here is enough to make us both rich for all the
rest of our lives. We need look for nothing better than this.”
But no; by-and-by Jacob Stuck began to cool down again, and now that
second thoughts were coming to him he would not even be satisfied with a
half-share of a chest of gold money. No; maybe there might be something
better than even a chest full of gold money to be found in the world.
As for John, why, after all, he was just as well satisfied to keep
his treasure for himself. So the two shook hands, and then Jacob Stuck
jogged away alone, leaving John stuffing his pockets and his hat full of
gold money, and I should have liked to have been there, to have had my
share.
Well, Jacob Stuck jogged on and on by himself, until after a while he
came to a great, wide desert, where there was not a blade or a stick to
be seen far or near. He jogged on and on, and he wished he had not
come there. He jogged on and on when all of a sudden the glass ball he
carried slipped out of his fingers and fell to the ground.
“Aha!” said he to himself, “now maybe I shall find some great treasure
compared to which even silver and gold are as nothing at all.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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