Instructions:

1. Kindly read and understand the short story and try to conceptualize its
meaning.
THE BLACKSMITH AND THE BAKER
An 18th-century Danish poet, Johan Herman Wessel, wrote the tale of The
Blacksmith and the Baker in verse. The story concerns a rather mean
blacksmith who killed a man in a barroom brawl while in a drunken rage. The
blacksmith is about to be sentenced to death by a judge when four upstanding
citizens speak on his behalf. Their argument is that the man is the only
blacksmith in this small town and his services are desperately needed. It
would accomplish nothing to execute him, but it would be detrimental to the
welfare of the community to deprive people of his skills. The judge is
sympathetic to their plea but responds that the law requires a life for a life. If
he let a murder go unpunished, it would undermine respect for the law and be
harmful to the fabric of the society. The citizens point out that the town has an
old and scrawny baker who is on the last leg of his life. He is a somewhat
disreputable and unpopular fellow, although he is innocent of any crime.
Because the town has two bakers, he would not be missed. So, for the
greatest good of the greatest number, the judge lets the blacksmith go while
framing the baker and making him pay for the murder with his life. The old
baker wept pitifully when they took him away.