ee the Princess offered up to the Stoorworm,--though a gruesome sight
'twould be to see. Ashipattle's father and brothers were planning to
go with the rest, but his mother and sister wept, and said they would
not see it for anything in the world.

Now Ashipattle's father had a horse named Feetgong, and he was not
much to look at. Nevertheless the farmer treasured him, and it was not
often he would let any one use him but himself. When the farmer rode
Feetgong he could make him go like the wind,--none faster,--and that
without beating him, either. Then when the farmer wished him to stop
Feetgong would stand as still as though he were frozen to the ground;
no one could make him budge. But if any one other than the farmer rode
him, then it was quite different. Feetgong would jog along, and not
even a beating would drive him faster, and then if one wanted him to
stop that was as hard to do as it was to start him. Ashipattle was
sure there was some secret about this; that his father had a way to
make him go that no one knew about; but what that way was he could not
find out.

The day before the beauteous Gemlovely was to be sacrificed Ashipattle
said to his mother, "Tell me something; how is it that Feetgong will
not go for you or my brothers or any one, but when my father mounts
him he goes like the wind,--none faster?"

Then his mother answered, "Indeed, I do not know."

"It seems a strange thing that my father would not tell you that,"
said Ashipattle, "and you his own true wife."

To this his mother answered nothing.

"A strange thing," said Ashipattle; "and in all the years you've lived
together not a thing have you kept back from him, whether he wished it
or no. But even a good husband always holds back some secret from his
wife."

Still his mother spoke never a word, but Ashipattle could see that she
was thinking.

That night Ashipattle lay awake long after the others were asleep. He
heard his father snoring and his brothers, too, but it seemed his
mother could not sleep. She turned and twisted and sighed aloud, until
at last she awakened her husband.

"What ails you," he asked, "that you turn and twist in bed and sigh so
loud that a body scarce can sleep."

"It's no wonder I sigh and cannot sleep," answered his wife. "I have
been thinking and turning things over in my mind, and I can see very
plainly that you do not love me as a good husband should love his
wife."

"How can you say that?" asked her hus