Page:Gesta Romanorum - Swan - Wright - 2.djvu/40

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OF THE GUARDIANSHIP


TALE III.

OF THE TIMOROUS GUARDIANSHIP OF THE SOUL.

When Trajan reigned, he took great pleasure in gardens. Having constructed one of uncommon beauty, and planted in it trees of every kind, he appointed a gardener with injunctions to defend it vigilantly. But by and by a wild boar broke into the garden, overturned the young trees, and rooted up the flowers. The keeper, whose name was Jonathan, perceiving this, cut off the boar's left ear, and the animal with a loud noise departed. But another day, the same boar re-entered the garden and committed great depredations; upon which Jonathan dismembered his right ear. But notwithstanding this, he entered a