THERE was once a poor old pedlar who sold ribbons and brooches and tapes and needles; his hair was long and his back was bent, and perhaps he did look rather strange; but that was no reason why the boys should have called him names and thrown stones at him as he went through the village. At last a stone hit him on the forehead and he fell on the dusty road, and the bad boys ran away, afraid of what they had done. But one boy named Jack had seen the thing from a field some way off, and now he came running up, and bathed the poor old man’s head and spoke kindly to him, and when the pedlar was better he said: “You are a good boy and you may have what you like out of my pack.”

Now, Jack did not like to take anything valuable out of a poor man’s pack, so he looked at all the pretty things, and then he picked out an old knife.

The pedlar laughed. “You have chosen the most valuable thing I have,” he said; “that knife will cut through iron or stone as easily as through butter.”

“Oh! then,” said Jack hastily, “let me have these old spectacles.”

The pedlar laughed louder than ever.

“Those spectacles will make you see to any part of the world, and see through stone or iron as easily as through glass,” he said; “there—take both!”

And putting the two into Jack’s hand he vanished—and he did it quite easily, because he was a magician.

So now Jack’s fortune was made; he could see where gold and precious stones lay under the earth and he could cut away the rocks that covered them as though they were butter.

So he was rewarded for his kind-heartedness.

But the greatest reward of all came to him when the Princess of that land was carried off and hidden by an enchanter. And the King, after vainly offering all sorts of other prizes, at last said that any man who could find the Princess and set her free should marry her.

So Jack put on his spectacles and saw the Princess sitting crying in a lonely tower. It was a year’s journey off, but he made the journey, and wherever he was, he put on his spectacles again and looked at the beautiful Princess, and that gave him courage.

At last he came to the tower, and with his magic knife he cut through the iron door and set the Princess free, and with the same knife he killed the wicked enchanter.

Then he took the Princess home in triumph and the grateful pedlar came to the wedding-feast.

E. Nesbit.