The Cockerel's Eye

You see the weathercock? On the steeple? I used to think that its eye was a ruby. My mam told me that and I believed her. It made sense to me - that glorious bird sitting like a king atop the highest thing for miles around... Why wouldn't it have a ruby for an eye?

So I believed her and I told others. I told Tom Simmons and he believed me too. And he fancied a ruby for himself and he tried to climb up and take it. And now he's buried in the churchyard beneath that steeple. Under the weathercock's eye.

And that eye? It's an old copper penny, not a ruby at all.