The Pedlar of Swaffham

Long ago, in the little town of Swaffham, there lived a peddler named John Chapman. Every day he walked from village to village with a pack on his back, selling buttons, ribbons, and pins. He was not rich, but he was kind, and he had a faithful little dog.

One night, John had a very strange dream. In the dream, a voice told him, “Go to London Bridge, and you will hear some happy news.” In the morning, he laughed at himself. But the next night, he had the very same dream, and the night after that, too. “Perhaps I should go,” he said to his dog.

So John and his little dog set off on the long road to London. They walked for many days, until at last they saw the great bridge over the river. It was crowded with houses and shops, and people bustled everywhere. John stood on the bridge all day, waiting and listening. He waited the next day too, but nobody told him any news at all.

On the third day, a shopkeeper came out of his shop. “I have seen you standing here for three days,” he said. “What are you waiting for?” John told him all about his dream. The shopkeeper laughed and laughed. “Dreams are just silly nonsense!” he said. “Why, last night I dreamed of a town called Swaffham, where I have never been.” “In my dream, there was a peddler’s garden with a big oak tree, and a pot of gold buried under it.” “But I am not foolish enough to go looking for it!”

John said nothing, but his heart went thump, thump, thump. He thanked the shopkeeper, and he hurried all the way home with his little dog. As soon as he got there, he took his spade and dug under the oak tree in his own garden. Clunk! His spade hit something hard, and he lifted out a pot full of shining gold coins!

On the lid of the pot, there were some old words that John could not read. A traveler read them for him, and they said that under this pot lay another, even richer. So John dug deeper, and there he found a second pot, with even more gold inside.

John Chapman did not keep all the treasure for himself. He gave money to help the poor, and he paid to fix the old church in Swaffham. And if you visit Swaffham today, the town sign still shows the peddler and his little dog.