ying about?"

"Nothing ails me now," answered the boy, "but there is something that
I wish to know, and unless you tell me I am sure I shall be quite
ill."

"What is it that you wish to know, my darling?"

"I wish to know where my life lies, and in what it is bound up,"
answered the boy.

When Suo heard this she was very much frightened.

"What do you mean?" she cried. "Who has been talking to you of your
life?"

Then Dalim said what was not true, for he feared that harm might come
to his pigeons. "No one has been talking to me," said he, "but I am
sure that my life lies somewhere outside of me, and if you will not
tell me about it I will neither eat nor drink, and then perhaps I may
die."

At last Suo could withstand him no longer. "My son," she said, "it is
as you have guessed. You are not as other children. Your life is bound
up in some object outside of yourself, and if this object should fall
into the hands of an enemy the greatest misfortunes might come upon
you, and perhaps even death."

"And what is this object?" asked the boy.

Again Suo hesitated. Then she said:

"The beggar told me that under the roots of that same tree that bore
the fruit lies buried a golden necklace, and it is with that necklace
that part of your life is bound up."

Now that Dalim Kumar knew the secret he was content, and smiled upon
his mother and caressed her, and ate some of the sweetmeats she had
prepared for him. Then he ran away to get his pigeons.

Duo was waiting for him impatiently. "Have you found out the secret of
your life?" she demanded.

"Yes," answered the Prince. "It is bound up in a golden necklace that
lies buried under the roots of a tree over in the jungle,--a tree with
a silver trunk and golden leaves. And now give me my pigeons."

Duo was very willing to do this; she had no longer any use for them.
She placed the cage in which she had put them in his hands and pushed
him impatiently from the room.

As soon as the boy had gone the Ranee sent for a man upon whom she
could depend and told him what she wished him to do. She wished him to
go into the jungle and search until he found a tree with a silver
trunk and golden leaves. He was then to dig down about its roots until
he found a golden necklace that lay buried there. This necklace he was
to bring to her, and in return for his services she would give him a
lac of gold mohurs.

The man willingly agreed to do as she wished and at once set out into