Come now, darken
the edge of that pillar ... I fear you have made the tower a little
confused,' and so forth.
I offered to buy a few apples off him, but he gave me three instead,
and these, as they incommoded me, I gave later to a little child.
Indeed the people of Epinal, not taking me for a traveller but simply
for a wandering poor man, were very genial to me, and the best good
they did me was curing my lameness. For, seeing an apothecary's shop
as I was leaving the town, I went in and said to the apothecary -
'My knee has swelled and is very painful, and I have to walk far;
perhaps you can tell me how to cure it, or give me something that
will.'
'There is nothing easier,' he said; 'I have here a specific for the
very thing you complain of.'
With this he pulled out a round bottle, on the label of which was
printed in great letters, 'BALM'.
'You have but to rub your knee strongly and long with this ointment of
mine,' he said, 'and you will be cured.' Nor did he mention any
special form of words to be repeated as one did it.
Everything happened just as he had said.
