>>514189683
He ordered a loaded a cart with triple her pay, and his accountant to ready a fine bag of gold.
As his man helped him get his coat on, he decided to take the shaker with him, for the land was no longer cursed, his estate was set, he was going to die soon, and perhaps there was another who could use the shaker.

He rode the cart to the witches house, her estate now quite weathered, and some parts looking overgrown. The man rolled the cart to the door, and waited while the witch walked slowly across the boards. He could hear the thump of her can and the shuffle of her feet, and he wondered that she too was not long for this world.
But when she opened the door she smiled wide and welcomed him in, and they sat as his servants delivered her payment, and the gifts. She told him that she didn't need them, but that it was very kind and she would see the gold was well spent. And he decided that it was time to return the shaker.
He cautiously reached into his pocket to bring out the red clay shaker with the sunflower print on the side. As he placed it on the table and told her that he had decided to return it, so that she could sell it to another young man who needed a curse lifted, she started to chuckle. He was embarrassed and sat quiet, looking at the clay jar that had been rewaxed in his chambers more times than he could count. It was important, she told him, to keep the lid on. Certainly fresh seal would keep it from easily falling off. He thought about the first time he used it, and dozens of other times between. He spoke, as she smiled,
>It was just 3 years after you had given me this magic shaker, that I found a young wild horse had wedged its leg in a bird net. Oh that magic, worked so well, that horse sired a barn full of fast riding mounts. And then there was the time where the county governor was riding by with a son, and the man reached up just in time to catch his child as it started to tumble off the wagon. Gained a 10 year contract and an ally...