THE FOURTH TALE OF THE MERRY MEN OF GOTHAM
For many years the Gotham blacksmith was a miserable man, who unlike most smiths, was lazy and carried out his work in a slow and slapdash way. Wasps had set an enormous nest in the straw at the end of his forge and the place was always full of wasps, but as they stayed away from the heat of the forge, the blacksmith wasn’t bothered by them and did nothing to get rid of them, in spite of the endless complaints of his customers. As they waited for the smithy to shoe their horses or weld their ploughs, many of the villagers were stung. those who waited to have work done by the smithy were often stung by the frantic, bustling hordes of wasps.
One villager was furious when he was stung for a second time and yelled at the blacksmith’ ‘You great lazy fool. You’re not fit to run a forge, leaving your customers to be stung like this because you can’t be bothered to get rid of that nest!’
The smith lifted his head, narrowed his eyes and said ‘Oh I can solve that problem any time I like,’ and, taking an iron bar than had been turned red hot from the fire, he began to lunge down the forge. For an awful moment, the man thought he was coming for him – but the smith strode past him to thrust the bar deep into the straw at the end of the forge. The straw immediately burst into flames and burnt up the wasp’s nest - then went on to burn down the forge! As the smithy and the man stood outside watch the building burn, the smith turned to the man. ‘Well that’s the wasps gone.’
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FIRST TO FIND: GUNNERBOB