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92 KIPLING'S SUSSEX
St. Dunstan would punish the old woman for the deception) and found the old boy singing of Mass. And when St. Dunstan had heard the Poor Man whine out his story of how he had been tricked, he asked him to step into his little workshop in the palace, and drink a friendly mug of Mayfields buttery ale over the matter.
" Then the Poor Man took a seat while St. Dunstan blew the bellows and made his forge fire roar up, for St. Dunstan, hap you have heard, was odd-fashioned no bounds, and a wonderful hand at smithying and fashioning altar vessels.
" And all the time the devil was first raging and roaring away with passion, and then shrill and sorrowful about having been cheated by the old woman, while St. Dunstan, who felt trouble same as eels feel thunder, was warming up a particularly long and sharp pair of pincers in his forge, ' Now what do you think of it all ?' said the Poor Man. ' I think you have been very scurvily treated,' said St. Dunstan coaxingly, and with that he pulled his tongs all red-hot from the charcoal fire and fixed them tight on the devil's nose, who, with a single spring, leapt to Tunbridge Wells, where he cooled the injured organ in a brook, imparting to the waters thereabouts the harsh flavour ever since retained.'' |
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