?' asked the youth.

'Yes, I hear; you have spoken the truth, and I cannot blame you for what
has happened. I must bear the loss as best as I can.'

He turned and went home, followed by the young man, who felt highly
pleased with his own cleverness.

'I should not be surprised if the tasks I set you were too difficult,
and that you were tired of them,' said the herdsman next morning; 'but
to-day I have something quite easy for you to do. You must look after
forty oxen, and be sure you are very careful, for one of them has
gold-tipped horns and hoofs, and the king reckons it among his greatest
treasures.'

The young man drove out the oxen into the meadow, and no sooner had they
got there than, like the sheep and the pigs, they began to scamper in
all directions, the precious bull being the wildest of all. As the youth
stood watching them, not knowing what to do next, it came into his head
that his father's cow was put out to grass at no great distance; and he
forthwith made such a noise that he quite frightened the oxen, who were
easily persuaded to take the path he wished. When they heard the cow
lowing they galloped all the faster, and soon they all arrived at his
father's house.

The old man was standing before the door of his hut when the great herd
of animals dashed round a corner of the road, with his son and his own
cow at their head.

'Whose cattle are these, and why are they here?' he asked; and his son
told him the story.

'Take them back to your master as soon as you can,' said the old man;
but the son only laughed, and said:

'No, no; they are a present to you! They will make you fat!'

For a long while the old man refused to have anything to do with such a
wicked scheme; but his son talked him over in the end, and they killed
the oxen as they had killed the sheep and the pigs. Last of all they
came to the king's cherished ox.

The son had a rope ready to cast round its horns, and throw it to the
ground, but the ox was stronger than the rope, and soon tore it in
pieces. Then it dashed away to the wood, the youth following; over
hedges and ditches they both went, till they reached the rocky pass
which bordered the herdsman's land. Here the ox, thinking itself safe,
stopped to rest, and thus gave the young man a chance to come up with
it. Not knowing how to catch it, he collected all the wood he could
find and made a circle of fire round the ox, who by this time had fallen
asleep, and did not wake