Page 23 - The Goose

showing a mint and a coining of crowns, out of her
fundament there came forth a sewer of dirt, which
covered the bed-linen with a dark yellowish
matter, the stink of which filled the whole house
like the flavour that cometh forth from the pot of
stew on the holydays. When they beheld that sight,
they thought to feed her well, so that she would
make that alchemical lapis philosophorum, to satisfy
their desire. And thus they fed her so well and so
much, that she was full up to her throat, and they
then placed her upon a clean sheet; but if the
goose had been rather loose before, she now
discovered a new desentery, indigestion playing a
part. For which reason the gossips were wroth
with exceeding wrath, and twisting the neck of the
goose, threw her out of the 487 window into a
narrow street with no outlet, into which ordure
and filth were cast. But as fate and fortune had
decreed, that where least thou thinkest the bean
will grow, passed that way a son of a king, hunting
and birdling, and on the road he was taken by a
colic, and bidding his groom hold the reins of his
steed and his sword, he entered that narrow street,
and emptied his belly, and completing this service,
having no paper in his pocket to wipe ____

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