summers asleep under a shady tree; and if he
was not doing either of these things he was playing tunes on his flute.

One day he was sitting under a bush playing so sweetly that you might
easily have mistaken the notes for those of a bird, when an old man
passed by. 'What trade do you wish to follow, my son?' he asked in a
friendly voice, stopping as he did so in front of the youth.

'If I were only a rich man, and had no need to work,' replied the boy,
'I should not follow any. I could not bear to be anybody's servant, as
all my brothers and sisters are.'

The old man laughed as he heard this answer, and said: 'But I do not
exactly see where your riches are to come from if you do not work for
them. Sleeping cats catch no mice. He who wishes to become rich must
use either his hands or his head, and be ready to toil night and day, or
else--'

But here the youth broke in rudely:

'Be silent, old man! I have been told all that a hundred times over;
and it runs off me like water off a duck's back. No one will ever make a
worker out of me.'

'You have one gift,' replied the old man, taking no notice of this
speech, 'and if you would only go about and play the pipes, you would
easily earn, not only your daily bread, but a little money into the
bargain. Listen to me; get yourself a set of pipes, and learn to play on
them as well as you do on your flute, and wherever there are men to hear
you, I promise you will never lack money.'

'But where am I to get the pipes from?' asked the youth.

'Blow on your flute for a few days,' replied the old man, 'and you will
soon be able to buy your pipes. By-and-by I will come back again and see
if you have taken my advice, and whether you are likely to grow rich.'
And so saying he went his way.

Tiidu stayed where he was a little longer, thinking of all the old man
had told him, and the more he thought the surer he felt that the old
man was right. He determined to try whether his plan would really bring
luck; but as he did not like being laughed at he resolved not to tell
anyone a word about it. So next morning he left home--and never came
back! His parents did not take his loss much to heart, but were rather
glad that their useless son had for once shown a little spirit, and they
hoped that time and hardship might cure Tiidu of his idle folly.

For some weeks Tiidu wandered from one village to another, and proved
for himself the truth of the old man's promise. The people he met w