Oh led him down the short way to the land that is under this, and when
he got there the man stared about him in wonder. Never had he seen so
many green things in all his life before.

Oh took a handful of corn and scattered it about, calling as he did
so. Then a great number of cocks that were pecking about the place
came running and began to pick up the corn.

"Tell me now, which of these is your son?" asked Oh, "for one of them
is he."

The man stared and scratched his head and stared again, but he could
not tell, for one cock was just like another. He had to own that he
could not tell which was his son.

"Very well," said Oh. "Then you will have to go home without him. Come
back at the end of another year, and then if you know him from his
mates you shall take him home with you, but if not then he shall stay
with me a twelvemonth longer."

That did not suit the man at all, but he could not say no, for that
was what the bargain had been.

At the end of the year the man came back to the forest again and
called upon Oh, and Oh was quickly before him.

"Come along," said Oh. "You surely ought to know your son when you see
him. If you do he shall go home with you, and I shall not say no to
it, but if not then he shall stay with me a year longer."

When the man heard this he was troubled, for he feared the Green One
meant to play some trick on him as he had before, and he wanted his
son home again, lazy or not. Moreover the lad's mother was grieving
for him.

Oh led the man down to the underworld and over to a field where a
flock of rams was grazing.

"All these are my servants," said Oh, "and one of them is your son.
Look well and tell me which is he, for unless you can choose him out
he must stay here with me."

The man looked and looked, but he could not tell which of the rams was
his son, for they all looked alike to him, so he had to go home
without him.

When the lad's mother heard of this second trick the Green One had
played on her husband she wept bitterly. "If we cannot find some way
to get round him, we will never have the lad back again," she said.

"That is true," said the man; "but if our son looks like a cock, how
can I tell him from other cocks; and if he looks like a ram, how can I
tell him from other rams?"

Well, time slipped by, and the man and his wife grew poorer and
poorer, for they were growing old, and they needed a young body in the
house to work for them.

When it was about