A WORKMAN, felling wood by the side of a river, let his axe1 drop

　　- by accident into a deep pool. Being thus deprived of the means

　　of his livelihood2, he sat down on the bank and lamented3 his hard

　　fate. Mercury appeared and demanded the cause of his tears.

　　After he told him his misfortune, Mercury plunged4 into the

　　stream, and, bringing up a golden axe, inquired if that were the

　　one he had lost. On his saying that it was not his, Mercury

　　disappeared beneath the water a second time, returned with a

　　silver axe in his hand, and again asked the Workman if it were

　　his. When the Workman said it was not, he dived into the pool

　　for the third time and brought up the axe that had been lost.

　　The Workman claimed it and expressed his joy at its recovery.

　　Mercury, pleased with his honesty, gave him the golden and silver

　　axes in addition to his own. The Workman, on his return to his

　　house, related to his companions all that had happened. One of

　　them at once resolved to try and secure the same good fortune for

　　himself. He ran to the river and threw his axe on purpose into

　　the pool at the same place, and sat down on the bank to weep.

　　Mercury appeared to him just as he hoped he would; and having

　　learned the cause of his grief, plunged into the stream and

　　brought up a golden axe, inquiring if he had lost it. The

　　Workman seized it greedily, and declared that truly it was the

　　very same axe that he had lost. Mercury, displeased5 at his

　　knavery, not only took away the golden axe, but refused to

　　recover for him the axe he had thrown into the pool.