And with that she lifted the lid and looked inside.  “Mercy me!” she cried, fair amazed.  “If it isn’t full of gold pieces.  Here’s luck!”

And so it was, brimful of great gold coins.  Well, at first she simply stood stock-still, wondering if she was standing on her head or her heels.  Then she began saying: 

“Lawks!  But I do feel rich.  I feel awful rich!”

After she had said this many times, she began to wonder how she was to get her treasure home.  It was too heavy for her to carry, and she could see no better way than to tie the end of her shawl to it and drag it behind her like a go-cart.

“It will soon be dark,” she said to herself as she trotted along.  “So much the better!  The neighbours will not see what I’m bringing home, and I shall have all the night to myself, and be able to think what I’ll do!  Mayhap I’ll buy a grand house and just sit by the fire with a cup o’ tea and do no work at all like a queen.  Or maybe I’ll bury it at the garden foot and just keep a bit in the old china teapot on the chimney-piece.  Or maybe—­Goody!  Goody!  I feel that grand I don’t know myself.”

By this time she was a bit tired of dragging such a heavy weight, and, stopping to rest a while, turned to look at her treasure.

And lo! it wasn’t a pot of gold at all!  It was nothing but a lump of silver.

She stared at it, and rubbed her eyes, and stared at it again.

“Well!  I never!” she said at last.  “And me thinking it was a pot of gold!  I must have been dreaming.  But this is luck!  Silver is far less trouble—­easier to mind, and not so easy stolen.  Them gold pieces would have been the death o’ me, and with this great lump of silver—­”

So she went off again planning what she would do, and feeling as rich as rich, until becoming a bit tired again she stopped to rest and gave a look round to see if her treasure was safe; and she saw nothing but a great lump of iron!

“Well!  I never!” says she again.  “And I mistaking it for silver!  I must have been dreaming.  But this is luck!  It’s real convenient.  I can get penny pieces for old iron, and penny pieces are a deal handier for me than your gold and silver.  Why!  I should never have slept a wink for fear of being robbed.  But a penny piece comes in useful, and I shall sell that iron for a lot and be real rich—­rolling rich.”

So on she trotted full of plans as to how she would spend her penny pieces, till once more she stopped to rest and looked round to see her treasure was safe.  And this time she saw nothing but a big stone.

“Well!  I never!” she cried, full of smiles.  “And to think I mistook it for iron.  I must have been dreaming.  But here’s luck indeed, and me wanting a stone terrible bad to stick open the gate.  Eh my! but it’s a change for the better!  It’s a fine thing to have good luck.”

So, all in a hurry to see how the stone would keep the gate open, she trotted off down the hill till she came to her own cottage.  She unlatched the gate and then turned to unfasten her shawl from the stone which lay on the path behind her.  Aye!  It was a stone sure enough.  There was plenty light to see it lying there, douce and peaceable as a stone should.