*** Original and Unabridged Content. Made available by CLASSIC COLLECTION 600.***

Synopsis:

There was once an old, old castle--it was so old that its I walls and

towers and turrets and gateways and arches had crumbled to ruins, and of

all its old splendour there were only two little rooms left; and it was

here that John the blacksmith had set up his forge. He was too poor to

live in a proper house, and no one asked any rent for the rooms in the

ruin, because all the lords of the castle were dead and gone this many a

year. So there John blew his bellows, and hammered his iron, and did all

the work which came his way. This was not much, because most of the trade

went to the mayor of the town, who was also a blacksmith in quite a large

way of business, and had his huge forge facing the square of the town,

and had twelve apprentices, all hammering like a nest of woodpeckers, and

twelve journeymen to order the apprentices about, and a patent forge and

a self-acting hammer and electric bellows, and all things handsome about

him. So that of course the townspeople, whenever they wanted a horse shod

or a shaft mended, went to the mayor. And John the blacksmith struggled

on as best he could, with a few odd jobs from travellers and strangers

who did not know what a superior forge the mayor's was. The two rooms

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