{"product_id":"2940015528497","title":"THE CROCK OF GOLD","description":"CONTENTS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e   BOOK I   THE COMING OF PAN\u003cbr\u003e   BOOK II  THE PHILOSOPHER'S JOURNEY\u003cbr\u003e   BOOK III THE TWO GODS\u003cbr\u003e   BOOK IV  THE PHILOSOPHER'S RETURN\u003cbr\u003e   BOOK V   THE POLICEMEN\u003cbr\u003e   BOOK VI  THE THIN WOMAN'S JOURNEY AND THE HAPPY MARCH\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBOOK I. THE COMING OF PAN\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCHAPTER I\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIN the centre of the pine wood called Coilla Doraca there lived not long\u003cbr\u003eago two Philosophers. They were wiser than anything else in the world\u003cbr\u003eexcept the Salmon who lies in the pool of Glyn Cagny into which the nuts\u003cbr\u003eof knowledge fall from the hazel bush on its bank. He, of course, is the\u003cbr\u003emost profound of living creatures, but the two Philosophers are next to\u003cbr\u003ehim in wisdom. Their faces looked as though they were made of parchment,\u003cbr\u003ethere was ink under their nails, and every difficulty that was submitted\u003cbr\u003eto them, even by women, they were able to instantly resolve. The Grey\u003cbr\u003eWoman of Dun Gortin and the Thin Woman of Inis Magrath asked them the\u003cbr\u003ethree questions which nobody had ever been able to answer, and they were\u003cbr\u003eable to answer them. That was how they obtained the enmity of these two\u003cbr\u003ewomen which is more valuable than the friendship of angels. The Grey\u003cbr\u003eWoman and the Thin Woman were so incensed at being answered that they\u003cbr\u003emarried the two Philosophers in order to be able to pinch them in bed,\u003cbr\u003ebut the skins of the Philosophers were so thick that they did not know\u003cbr\u003ethey were being pinched. They repaid the fury of the women with such\u003cbr\u003etender affection that these vicious creatures almost expired of chagrin,\u003cbr\u003eand once, in a very ecstacy of exasperation, after having been kissed\u003cbr\u003eby their husbands, they uttered the fourteen hundred maledictions which\u003cbr\u003ecomprised their wisdom, and these were learned by the Philosophers who\u003cbr\u003ethus became even wiser than before.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn due process of time two children were born of these marriages. They\u003cbr\u003ewere born on the same day and in the same hour, and they were only\u003cbr\u003edifferent in this, that one of them was a boy and the other one was a\u003cbr\u003egirl. Nobody was able to tell how this had happened, and, for the first\u003cbr\u003etime in their lives, the Philosophers were forced to admire an event\u003cbr\u003ewhich they had been unable to prognosticate; but having proved by many\u003cbr\u003edifferent methods that the children were really children, that what\u003cbr\u003emust be must be, that a fact cannot be controverted, and that what\u003cbr\u003ehas happened once may happen twice, they described the occurrence\u003cbr\u003eas extraordinary but not unnatural, and submitted peacefully to a\u003cbr\u003eProvidence even wiser than they were.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47084488065264,"sku":"2940015528497","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940015528497","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}