The Debt of the Vineyard

A vinedresser keeps putting off the gap in his hedge — until his goats strip an old neighbour's vines in one grey dawn. The coins he counts out are refused, and the debt comes due in the one currency he cannot spare: the wedding rows, and a year of his hands.

A tale of Responsibility

He kept his coins in the end — the old man would not take them. What the debt asked for hung dark and heavy on the wedding rows, and it could not be carried uphill in a purse.