IN a quiet valley there once dwelt a shepherd, who led a peaceful, happy life. He had large flocks, from whose fleecy backs the wool was regularly shorn, and sold to the merchants; and the merchants paid him money, with which he bought all things needful for health and bodily comfort.
One day the shepherd drove his flocks to the sea-side, and as he looked abroad upon the great expanse of water, and saw the ships moving over its surface, he felt, for the first time, discontented with his lot. A desire to see the world took possession of his mind.
“I will no longer shut myself up in this narrow valley,” he said. “I will become a merchant. I will pass over the wide sea, and go among the people of many lands.”
So the shepherd sold his flocks, and with the money bought merchandise, which he placed in a ship, and started for a distant country. During the first day after leaving the land, he could do little else but admire the wonderful ocean upon whose surface he was sailing, and think how happy he was at having escaped the dull life of a shepherd in an unknown vale. But on the second day after leaving the land, the motion of the ship made him very sick. He could no longer enjoy the great expanse of ocean and sky spread out above and around him, but had to remain in the cabin, unable even to lift his head from his pillow. As he lay sick in the dark, narrow cabin, filled with polluted air, he thought of the green shady places, cool refreshing streams, and pure air of his native valley, and, for the first time, he repented of what he had done.
It was more than a week before the shepherd could go upon deck, and feel pleasure in the sky and ocean as he had done at first.
At last the vessel arrived at its destined place: the shepherd landed his goods and offered them for sale. He soon found a merchant willing to buy them. The price was agreed upon, the merchandise delivered, and the money demanded. But it happened, as it almost always happens when men get dissatisfied with the business or calling with which they are perfectly familiar, and enter into one they know nothing about, the shepherd fell into dishonest hands. The merchant refused to pay him his money.
In order to get this wrong redressed, the shepherd called upon a magistrate of the country, who promised to see that justice was done to him. But the merchant knew the magistrate to be as unfitted for his calling as he was for his, and so he offered him a bribe, which the wicked magistrate accepted. In vain did the shepherd seek for justice at his hands; no justice could he get. His importunities at last became so great, that the magistrate threatened to have him put into prison if he troubled him any more.
In his own peaceful valley there was no wrong and oppression like this. The merchants who came for his fleece were good and true men, and paid the prices agreed upon. The ignorant shepherd had not dreamed that there were such wicked men in the world as this merchant and this magistrate, into whose hands he had fallen.
In a strange land, among strange people, thousands of miles away from his home, and all his money and property gone, the poor shepherd was about giving up in despair. But he bethought him that he would go to the king of the country, and ask justice at his hands.
The king, when he heard the shepherd’s story, was very angry at the wrong that had been done in his kingdom. He sent immediately, and had the magistrate and the merchant brought before him and confronted with their accuser. On seeing the shepherd, their hearts became filled with alarm, and their faces betrayed what was in their hearts. When accused they could answer nothing. So the king caused the merchant to pay the shepherd for his goods; and besides, imposed upon him a heavy fine. From the magistrate he took away his office, and had him cast into prison.
As soon as the shepherd had received his money, he returned in the first ship that sailed for his native country, and buying more flocks, was ever after contented to follow them in the peaceful valley where no wrong, oppression, or dishonesty had yet come.
