Luck And Bliss
:
The Folk-tales Of The Magyars
Luck and Bliss went out one day, and came to a town where they found a
poor man selling brooms, but nobody seemed to buy anything from him.
Bliss thereupon said, "Let us stop, and I will buy them all from the
poor fellow, so that he may make a good bargain." So they stopped, and
Bliss bought them all, and gave him six times the market value of them,
in order that the poor man might have a good start.
On a
other occasion they came to the same town and found the man still
selling brooms. Bliss bought them all, and gave him ten times their
market value. They came a third time to the town, and the man was still
selling brooms, whereupon Luck said, "Let me try now, for, see, you have
bought them all twice, and in vain, for the man is a poor broom-seller
still;" so Luck bought them, but she did not give a penny more than the
market price. They came to the town a fourth time and saw the man who
had sold brooms leading wheat into town in a wagon with iron hoops on
the wheels and drawn by four fine bullocks. When they saw this Luck said
to Bliss, "Do you see that man who used to sell brooms? You bought them
all twice for a very high price. I bought them but once, and that for
the market value, and the consequence of my having done so is that he no
longer sells brooms, as he used to do, but wheat, and it appears he must
have got on well with his farm too."