scratched his left ear with his hind paw, and
after a while he beckons the man to come near him. And when he did so
the fox whispered,

"What will you give me if I get you out of this?"

The man whispered back, "A pair of fat chickens."

"Well," said the fox, "if I am to decide this case I must clearly
understand the situation. Let me see! If I comprehend aright, the man
was lying under the stone and the snake----"

"No, no," cried out the horse and the hound and the snake. "It was the
other way."

"Ah, ha, I see! The stone was rolling down and the man sat on it, and
then----"

"Oh, how stupid you are," they all cried; "it wasn't that way at all."

"Dear me, you are quite right. I am very stupid, but, really, you
haven't explained the case quite clearly to me."

"I'll show you," said the snake, impatient from his long hunger; and
he twisted himself again under the stone and wriggled his tail till at
last the stone settled down upon him and he couldn't move out. "That's
the way it was."

"And that's the way it will be," said the fox, and, taking the man's
arm, he walked off, followed by the horse and the hound. "And now for
my chickens."

"I'll go and get them for you," said the man, and went up to his
house, which was near, and told his wife all about it.

"But," she said, "why waste a pair of chickens on a foxy old fox! I
know what I'll do."

So she went into the back yard and unloosed the dog and put it into a
meal-bag and gave it to the man, who took it down and gave it to the
fox, who trotted off with it to his den.

But when he opened the bag out sprung the dog and gobbled him all up.

There's gratitude for you.

[Illustration: The Three Ravens]

JOHN THE TRUE

There was once a king who had long been unmarried. Now one day, going
through his palace, he came to a room that he had never opened before.
So he sent for the key and entered it, and opposite the door was the
picture of a most beautiful princess with skin white as snow and
cheeks red as blood and hair black as ebony. No sooner had he seen
this picture than he fell in love with it and asked who she was.

His chamberlain said, "That is the Princess of the Golden Horde, with
which your Majesty's kingdom has been at war these last twenty years.
Only three years ago, when your Majesty's father was alive, there was
some talk of peace and of betrothing you to her, and that was when her
portrait was sent here. But now the two kingdo