How Owlglass tells a Truth to a Smith, to his Wife, his Assistant, and his Maidservant, for which he gets his Horse shod.

Owlglass now being in funds, he rode about the country like a gentleman, and one day came to a small town, where he saw a very neat woman, with her servant maid, standing at the door of a smithy, and judged her to be the smith’s wife. He put up at an inn just opposite, and during the night pulled the four shoes off his horse. On the following morning he led his horse to the smithy; and as soon as it was known that it was Owlglass, the wife and maidservant came out to see what had brought him there. Owlglass asked the Smith whether he would shoe his horse; to which he at once agreed, for he was glad of an opportunity to have some talk with a man of whom he had heard so much. After much talk on both sides, the Smith said, “If you will tell me a truth that is really true, I will put one shoe on your horse without any charge.” To this Owlglass answered, “If you have iron and coals, and there is plenty of wind in the bellows, the fault will be yours if the forge does not go on well.” “That is undoubtedly true,” said the Smith; and he gave him the promised horseshoe. The assistant, as he was putting on the shoe, said that if he would tell him a truth that applied to him, he would put another shoe on his horse. In answer, Owlglass said, “A smith’s assistant must work hard and not spare himself if he expects to please his master.” “That is true enough,” was the answer, and the horse had a second shoe. Then the wife and the servant wanted a truth told them, for which each promised his horse a shoe. Owlglass whispered his answer in the ear of each of these. To the mistress he said, “When a servant apes her mistress’s dress, she would be mistress not only in dress alone.” The Mistress marked his glances as well as his words, and said, “That is true enough;” so there was a third shoe for the horse. And to the maid he said, “When a servant is better looking than her mistress, she will find it difficult to please her in anything.” The Maid said, “That I know to be true.” So the horse got its fourth shoe, and Owlglass rode further on his way.