In Midsummer Days, and Other Tales Part 19

Next she met a gipsy.

"Where are you going to?" asked the gipsy.

"Straight ahead," answered Little Bluewing.

"Then you won't be led astray," said the gipsy.

Then she met a milkman. But she could not understand why the horse was inside the cart and the milkman harnessed to the shafts.

"Now I shall shy and run away," said the milkman, and gave such a start that the horse fell out of the cart into the ditch.... "Now I shall water the rye," he went on, and took the lid off one of his milk cans.

Little Bluewing thought it strange, but continued her way without giving him as much as a look.

"And you aren't curious, either," said the milkman.

And now Little Bluewing was standing at the foot of the mountain; the sunbeams fell through the hazel bushes on the green leaves of a luxurious plant which shone like gold.

It was the goldpowder. Little Bluewing noticed how it followed the vein of the spring down the mountain side into the rich man's meadow.

She belt down and gathered three flowers, put them carefully into her pinafore and took them home to her father.

The dragoon put on sword, helmet, and uniform, and went with his little daughter to the clergyman. And all three went to the rich man.

"Little Bluewzng has found the goldpowder!" said the clergyman, as soon as he entered the drawing-room. "And now the whole village will be rich before long, because it is sure to become a summer resort."

And it became a summer resort before long; steamers and shop people arrived; an inn and a post-office were built; a doctor settled on the island, and a chemist. Gold poured into the village all during the summer, and that is the story of the goldpowder, which can transform poverty into wealth.