carried this message to heaven and God Almighty, pitying the
poor shepherd, took some birch leaves and wrote on them in letters of
gold. He put them in the skylark's bill and told the skylark to drop
them on the dragon's head.

So the skylark returned from heaven and, hovering over Batcha, dropped
the birch leaves on the dragon's head.

The dragon instantly sank to earth, so fast that Batcha lost
consciousness.

When he came to himself he was sitting before his own hut. He looked
about him. The dragon's cliff had disappeared. Otherwise everything was
the same.

It was late afternoon and Dunay, the dog, was driving home the sheep.
There was a woman coming up the mountain path.

Batcha heaved a great sigh.

"Thank God I'm back!" he said to himself. "How fine it is to hear
Dunay's bark! And here comes my wife, God bless her! She'll scold me, I
know, but even if she does, how glad I am to see her!"

CLEVER MANKA

THE STORY OF A GIRL WHO KNEW WHAT TO SAY

[Illustration]

CLEVER MANKA

There was once a rich farmer who was as grasping and unscrupulous as he
was rich. He was always driving a hard bargain and always getting the
better of his poor neighbors. One of these neighbors was a humble
shepherd who in return for service was to receive from the farmer a
heifer. When the time of payment came the farmer refused to give the
shepherd the heifer and the shepherd was forced to lay the matter before
the burgomaster.

The burgomaster, who was a young man and as yet not very experienced,
listened to both sides and when he had deliberated he said:

"Instead of deciding this case, I will put a riddle to you both and the
man who makes the best answer shall have the heifer. Are you agreed?"

The farmer and the shepherd accepted this proposal and the burgomaster
said:

"Well then, here is my riddle: What is the swiftest thing in the world?
What is the sweetest thing? What is the richest? Think out your answers
and bring them to me at this same hour tomorrow."

The farmer went home in a temper.

"What kind of a burgomaster is this young fellow!" he growled. "If he
had let me keep the heifer I'd have sent him a bushel of pears. But now
I'm in a fair way of losing the heifer for I can't think of any answer
to his foolish riddle."

"What is the matter, husband?" his wife asked.

"It's that new burgomaster. The old one would have given me the heifer
without any argument, but this young man thinks to de