And when he had got it as big and deep as he chose, Youngling took out
his Walnut and laid it in one corner of the well, and pulled the plug
of moss out.

"Trickle and run," said Youngling, and so the Nut trickled and ran
till the water gushed out of the hole in a stream, and in a short time
the well was brimful.

So as Youngling had felled the oak which shaded the King's palace, and
dug a well in the palace-yard, he got the Princess and half the
kingdom, as the King had said; but it was lucky for Peter and Paul
that they had lost their ears, else they might have grown tired of
hearing how everyone said each hour of the day:

"Well, after all, Youngling wasn't so much out of his mind when he
took to wondering."

_What the Birds Said_

A lad named Kong Hia Chiang, who lived with his parents among the
mountains, understood the language of the birds. One twilight, as he
sat at his books, a flock of birds alighted on a tree before his
window and sang:

"Kong Hia Chiang, on the southern plain
A sheep awaits you by a heap of stones,--
A fine fat wether, that the dogs have slain;
You eat the flesh and we will pick the bones!"

Kong Hia Chiang went and brought in the torn sheep and cooked it
during the night. The next morning a shepherd came and said that one
of his sheep was missing; he had found blood on the meadow, had
followed the trail, and it had brought him to that house. Kong Hia
Chiang acknowledged that he had brought in the sheep, but declared
that the dogs had killed it, and that its death and the place where it
might be found had been made known to him by birds. His story was
considered to be an impudent fabrication, and he was haled away to
prison.

While he was awaiting his trial before the magistrate, a bird, flying
eastward, perched on the wall, saw him, and piped:

"Foes approach the western border,
Banners, bows, and spears in order,
While the gate lacks watch or warder."

Kong Hia Chiang thereupon so vehemently besought his jailer to inform
the magistrate of the imminent danger of invasion through the
unprotected Western Pass, that the jailer, though wholly incredulous,
decided to test his power of comprehending the utterances of birds. He
took some rice, soaked a part of it in sweetened water, and a part in
brine, and then spread the whole on the roof of a shed into which he
brought Kong Hia Chiang, and asked him if he knew why so many birds
were chi