Atondido Stories
anything about. He was very much interested in what he saw,
but he did not meddle with anything.
The next day he opened the room again where the horses
were kept. This time one of the horses,—the black one,—spoke
to him and said, “We like hay to eat very much better than this
meat which was left to us by mistake. The lion must have our
hay. Please give this meat to the lion and bring us back our hay.
If you will do this as I ask I’ll serve you for ever and ever.”
The boy took the meat to the lion. The lion was very much
pleased to exchange the hay for it. The lad then took the hay to
the horses. All at once he remembered how he had been told not
to meddle with anything. This had been meddling. The boy
burst into tears. “I shall lose my life as the punishment for this
deed,” he sobbed.
The horses listened in amazement. “I got you into this trou-
ble,” said the black horse. “Now I’ll get you out. Just trust me to
find a way out.”
The black horse advised the boy to take some extra clothes
and a sword and musket and mount upon his back. “I have lived
here in the depths of the river so long that my speed is greater
than that of the river itself,” said the horse. “If there was any
doubt of it before, now that I have had some hay once more I am
sure I can run faster than any river in the world.”
It was true. When the river giant came back home and found
that the boy had meddled he ran as fast as he could in pursuit of
the lad. The black horse safely and surely carried the lad beyond
his reach.
The black horse and his rider travelled on and on until finally
they came to a kingdom which was ruled over by a king who
had three beautiful daughters. The lad at once applied for a posi-
tion in the service of this king. “I do not know what you can do,”
183