sons at home; they will die of hunger if I am not there to bring
them food.'

Again the prince was filled with pity, and this time also he did not
shoot.

'Oh, prince, I will repay your deed of mercy,' cried the stork.

'You poor stork! how can you repay me?' asked the prince.

'You have forgotten,' answered the stork, 'the proverb that runs,
"mountain and mountain can never meet, but one living creature can
always come across another."'

The boy laughed at hearing these words again, and walked slowly on. He
had not gone far, when he fell in with two discharged soldiers.

'Where are you going, little brother?' asked one.

'I am seeking work,' answered the prince.

'So are we,' replied the soldier. 'We can all go together.'

The boy was glad of company and they went on, and on, and on, through
seven kingdoms, without finding anything they were able to do. At length
they reached a palace, and there was the king standing on the steps.

'You seem to be looking for something,' said he.

'It is work we want,' they all answered.

So the king told the soldiers that they might become his coachmen; but
he made the boy his companion, and gave him rooms near his own. The
soldiers were dreadfully angry when they heard this, for of course they
did not know that the boy was really a prince; and they soon began to
lay their heads together to plot his ruin.

Then they went to the king.

'Your Majesty,' they said, 'we think it our duty to tell you that your
new companion has boasted to us that if he were only your steward he
would not lose a single grain of corn out of the storehouses. Now, if
your Majesty would give orders that a sack of wheat should be mixed with
one of barley, and would send for the youth, and command him to separate
the grains one from another, in two hours' time, you would soon see what
his talk was worth.'

The king, who was weak, listened to what these wicked men had told him,
and desired the prince to have the contents of the sack piled into two
heaps by the time that he returned from his council. 'If you succeed,'
he added, 'you shall be my steward, but if you fail, I will put you to
death on the spot.'

The unfortunate prince declared that he had never made any such boast as
was reported; but it was all in vain. The king did not believe him, and
turning him into an empty room, bade his servants carry in the huge sack
filled with wheat and barley, and scatter them in a heap on the floor.

T