hut looked so
cool and inviting that she determined to bathe in it, instead of taking
her usual nap. Hastily piling up her load by the fire, and thrusting
some sticks into the flame, she ran down to the river and jumped in. How
delicious it was diving and swimming and floating in the dark forest,
where the trees were so thick that you could hardly see the sun! But
after a while she began to look about her, and her eyes fell on a little
fish that seemed made out of a rainbow, so brilliant were the colours he
flashed out.

'I should like him for a pet,' thought the girl, and the next time the
fish swam by, she put out her hand and caught him. Then she ran along
the grassy path till she came to a cave in front of which a stream fell
over some rocks into a basin. Here she put her little fish, whose name
was Djulung-djulung, and promising to return soon and bring him some
dinner, she went away.

[Illustration: THE LITTLE GIRL AND DJULUNG DJULUNG]

By the time she got home, the rice for their dinner was ready cooked,
and the eldest sister gave the other six their portions in wooden
bowls. But the youngest did not finish hers, and when no one was
looking, stole off to the fountain in the forest where the little fish
was swimming about.

'See! I have not forgotten you,' she cried, and one by one she let the
grains of rice fall into the water, where the fish gobbled them up
greedily, for he had never tasted anything so nice.

'That is all for to-day,' she said at last, 'but I will come again
to-morrow,' and bidding him good-bye she went down the path.

Now the girl did not tell her sisters about the fish, but every day she
saved half of her rice to give him, and called him softly in a little
song she had made for herself. If she sometimes felt hungry, no one knew
of it, and, indeed, she did not mind that much, when she saw how the
fish enjoyed it. And the fish grew fat and big, but the girl grew thin
and weak, and the loads of wood felt heavier every day, and at last her
sisters noticed it.

Then they took counsel together, and watched her to see what she did,
and one of them followed her to the fountain where Djulung lived, and
saw her give him all the rice she had saved from her breakfast.
Hastening home the sister told the others what she had witnessed, and
that a lovely fat fish might be had for the catching. So the eldest
sister went and caught him, and he was boiled for supper, but the
youngest sister was away in