All good things must come to an end. Here’s how this one ended.

Aiken-Drum might yet be in Blednock gathering the harvest and helping tired people with their work; but someone forgot what the little man had said, and over and over again in his strange little song:

“A bit to eat, a bed on hay, you may give; but nothing pay.”

You see, a Brownie loves to give; he will not work for pay. But someone forgot this.

“I must make something for Aiken-Drum,” said a poor woman whom he helped. “He never will stay to let me thank him. Winter is coming on, and he will be cold in his old worn suit. I will make him a warm coat.”

So she cut and sewed and pressed and made a little coat for the Brownie. She told no one what she was doing. One night she put the last stitch in the pretty little garment. Then she went softly to the miller’s barn and laid it down beside the bowl of broth.

The villagers of Blednock never saw Aiken-Drum again. For a true Brownie must work without reward. He cannot stay where he is paid. The strange little man was obliged to go away.

But sometimes the children hear his voice down by the old mill. It is always soft and low and sweet. He is singing the songs of his own land, just as he used to do when the little ones were gathered around him.

And then the good people in the village remember his kind deeds and his strange saying, “He serves himself best, who serves others most.”

Next Time: “Gwilan’s Harp”