But Death was not so near as the doctors thought , and still he lingered . He seemed in a desperate condition , but he got neither better nor worse . He could neither live nor die ; he suffered horribly , and called loudly on Death to put an end to his pains . In this extremity he remembered what he had told the little spinner long ago . If Death was so slow in coming , it was because he was not ready to follow him , having no shroud for his burial . He sent to fetch Renelde , placed her by his bedside , and ordered her at once to go on spinning his shroud . Hardly had the spinner begun to work when the Count began to feel his pains grow less . Then at last his heart melted ; he was sorry for all the evil he had done out of pride , and implored Renelde to forgive him . So Renelde forgave him , and went on spinning night and day . When the thread of the nettles was spun she wove it with her shuttle , and then cut the shroud and began to sew it . And as before , when she sewed the Count felt his pains grow less , and the life sinking within him , and when the needle made the last stitch he gave his last sigh . VIII At the same hour Guilbert returned to the country , and , as he had never ceased to love Renelde , he married her eight days later . He had lost two years of happiness , but comforted himself with thinking that his wife was a clever spinner , and , what was much more rare , a brave and good woman . -LRB- 24 -RRB- -LRB- 24 -RRB- Ch . Denlin . FARMER WEATHERBEARD THERE was once upon a time a man and a woman who had an only son , and he was called Jack . The woman thought that it was his duty to go out to service , and told her husband that he was to take him somewhere . ` You must get him such a good place that he will become master of all masters , ' she said , and then she put some food and a roll of tobacco into a bag for them . Well , they went to a great many masters , but all said that they could make the lad as good as they were themselves , but better than that they could not make him . When the man came home to the old woman with this answer , she said , ' I shall be equally well pleased whatever you do with him ; but this I do say , that you are to have him made a master over all masters . '
Then she once more put some food and a roll of XXXXX into the bag , and the man and his son had to set out again .
Denlin Guilbert VIII nettles night shroud shuttle spinner tobacco years