.'

[Footnote 29: From the _Bukowniaer_. Von Wliolocki.]

So his mother said, 'Very well, go to your aunt in the neighbouring
village, and fetch me a comb.' 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 l