f catching one of the cattle at
once, as usual, he had the works of the world to get one, the beasts
seemed as slippery as eels, and he was so dull in the head, he hardly knew
what he was about. However, after a great deal of trouble, and losing his
temper more than once, he managed to catch a fine calf, and tying its four
feet together, he slung it round his neck, and prepared to hurry back to
the Mount to have a good feast.

He walked, and he walked, and he walked as fast as his feet could carry
him, but though he went very quickly, and it was really no distance back
to the Cove, he somehow could not get any nearer to the end of his
journey; the path seemed all strange to him, too, and for the life of him
he could not tell where he was.

At last, when he was so tired that he was ready to drop, he came in sight
of a great black rock in Pengerswick Cove. It was a rock he did not
remember seeing before, and thinking he was once again on the wrong path
he turned to go back. But this, he found to his surprise, was what he
could not do. The rock, as if by magic, was drawing him nearer and
nearer. It was like a magnet, and struggle as he would, he could not keep
away from it. He tried to turn round, he tried to draw back, he even lay
down on the ground and dug his heels with all his strength into the sand.
But still he felt himself being drawn on and on until he actually touched
the rock, and the moment he touched it he found to his horror that he was
fastened to it as though by iron bands.

Oh, how he struggled to get free, how he twisted and turned, and kicked!
All in vain, though. He might as well have lain still and gone to sleep
for all the good he did. By degrees, too, he felt himself growing more
and more helpless, he could not move hand or foot, he grew colder and
stiffer, and stiffer and colder, until at last he was as if turned to
stone, except that his senses were more acute than ever they had been
before. To add to his torments, too, the calf which he had slung across
his shoulders, struggled and kicked and bellowed until the old thief was
black and blue, and nearly deafened. He was nearly scared to death, too,
for fear someone would hear the creature's noise, and come in search of
it, to find out what was the matter.

He tried and tried to throw off his burden, but nothing would loosen it,
and all the night long he had to bear the bleating and the bellowing in
his ear, and the incessant kicking and