the youth had not seen any dog.

The nobleman called and whistled, and he and his huntsman hunted far
and near, but they never found the greyhound.

As for the lad he set out on the road his father had taken and soon
caught up with him.

"That was a very pretty trick," said the father; "but after all three
hundred dollars is not much. It will barely buy us a cow and clothes
and put a new roof on the hut."

"Yes, but that is not the only trick I know," answered the son. "Look
at the hill over yonder and tell me what you see."

The father looked. "I see a company of fine ladies and gentlemen,"
answered the father, "and they are flying their falcons."

"I will change myself into a falcon, and when you have come to where
they are you shall loose me, and I will strike down a quail. Then they
will want to buy me. Sell me for three hundred dollars, no more, no
less. But whatever you do take off my hood and keep it, or misfortune
will surely overtake us."

The father promised he would do this, and then the lad turned himself
into a falcon and perched upon his father's hand.

Presently the father came up to where the ladies and gentlemen were at
their sport. They loosed their falcons, and the falcons flew after the
quail, but always they failed to strike, and the quail escaped.

"That is poor sport," said the man. "I can show you better."

He took off the hood and cast his falcon at the quail, and it quickly
struck down its prey.

The gentlemen and ladies were astonished at the quickness of the
falcon and at the beauty of its feathers.

"Sell us the bird," they said.

Yes, the man was willing to do that, but his price was three hundred
dollars without the hood; the hood was not for sale for love nor
money.

All the fine folk began to laugh. "What do we want with that old
hood?" they cried. "We will give the bird a hood that is worthy of a
king."

So the man took the three hundred dollars and the hood and went on his
way.

The one who had bought the falcon cast it at a quail, and it struck
down its prey as before, but when the hunters reached the place where
the birds had fallen they saw no falcon, but only a handsome young man
who stood there looking down at the dead quail.

"What became of the falcon that was here?" they asked.

But the youth had seen no falcon.

He set out and soon overtook his father, who had not gone far. "And
now art thou content?" he asked.

"Six hundred dollars is not a fortune,