omb.' The Hazel-nut child jumped quickly out
of the egg-shell and ran out into the street. Here he found a man on
horseback who was just setting out for the neighbouring village. He
crept up the horse's leg, sat down under the saddle, and then began to
pinch the horse and to prick it with a pin. The horse plunged and reared
and then set off at a hard gallop, which it continued in spite of its
rider's efforts to stop it. When they reached the village, the Hazel-nut
child left off pricking the horse, and the poor tired creature pursued
its way at a snail's pace. The Hazel-nut child took advantage of this,
and crept down the horse's leg; then he ran to his aunt and asked her
for a comb. On the way home he met another rider, and did the return
journey in exactly the same way. When he handed his mother the comb that
his aunt had given him, she was much amazed and asked him, 'But how did
you manage to get back so quickly?'

'Ah! mother,' he replied, 'you see I was quite right when I said I knew
a messenger was the profession for me.'

His father too possessed a horse which he often used to take out into
the fields to graze. One day he took the Hazel-nut child with him. At
midday the father turned to his small son and said, 'Stay here and look
after the horse. I must go home and give your mother a message, but I
shall be back soon.'

When his father had gone, a robber passed by and saw the horse grazing
without any one watching it, for of course he could not see the
Hazel-nut child hidden in the grass. So he mounted the horse and rode
away. But the Hazel-nut child, who was the most active little creature,
climbed up the horse's tail and began to bite it on the back, enraging
the creature to such an extent that it paid no attention to the
direction the robber tried to make it go in, but galloped straight home.
The father was much astonished when he saw a stranger riding his horse,
but the Hazel-nut child climbed down quickly and told him all that had
happened, and his father had the robber arrested at once and put into
prison.

One autumn when the Hazel-nut child was twenty years old he said to his
parents: 'Farewell, my dear father and mother. I am going to set out
into the world, and as soon as I have become rich I will return home to
you.'

The parents laughed at the little man's words, but did not believe him
for a moment. In the evening the Hazel-nut child crept on to the roof,
where some storks had built their nest.