y occasion.

The children used to live on the grains of rice that fell through
the bamboo floor, and such food as their mother could smuggle to them.

At last, when they were about six years old, their father took them
off into the forest and left them without food or drink. They wandered
for three days, being preserved by such fruits and leaves as they
could gather.

Finally poor Maria said she could go no farther, but that she would
die. Juan cut a mountain bamboo and from its hollow joints gave Maria
a refreshing drink. Then he climbed a tree and in the distance saw
a house. After much exertion they reached it and called out, "Tauo
po." [19] A voice from within said, "Come in, children." They went in
and found a table set, but no one was there, though the same voice
said, "Eat and drink all you want." They did so, and after saying,
"Thank you, good-by," they started to go away, but again they were
bidden to stay. So they stayed on for a long time until Juan was a
young man and Maria a young woman. From a great chest that stood in
the corner they took out new clothing as their old wore out, and the
chest was never empty, and there was always food in the magic dishes
on the table.

CHAPTER 21

The King, the Princess, and the Poor Boy.

There was once a king who loved his daughter very much, so much in
fact that he did not wish her to marry; so he built for her a secret
house or vault under the ground, and there he kept her away from all
but her parents and her maid servants.

There was also an old man in the same city who had a son. The old man
said to his son, "Come, lad, let us go into the country and plant crops
that we may live," for they were very poor. After they had worked a
short time in the country, the old man died and the boy returned to
the king's city and then went up and down the street crying, "Oh! who
will buy me for a slave, that I may bury my father?" A kind-hearted
rich man saw him and inquired his troubles, and the boy told him that
he was greatly grieved because his father was dead and he had no money
for the funeral. The rich man told him not to grieve, that his father
would be buried with all the ceremonies given to any one. After the
funeral the boy went to live with the rich man as his servant, and
served him faithfully; so faithfully, indeed, that the rich man, who
was childless, adopted him and gave him every advantage of education.

One day the boy wrote a sentence and placed it