later a rider from the traveling caravan arrived,
and visited the woodcutter's neighbor. Because the woodcutter was
not far away at the time, he overheard the conversation. "Have you
seen anyone with a baby in the past week?" demanded the rider roughly.

"Who's asking?" asked the neighbor, without excessive politeness.
As the woodcutter heard the angry, cursing, threatening reply of the
rider, he ambled back to his hut to inform his wife of what was
going on. The couple was quite shrewd enough not to reveal anything
to a rude, angry, and ill-dressed man on horseback, because, they
concluded that, however deficient their own hospitality to the
child, it was likely to be better than whatever would be offered by
such a ruffian. "And besides," the woodcutter's wife said, "I
already love the child too much to give him up."

As the days passed, the old couple grew thoroughly attached to the
baby. They both found themselves unexpectedly humming little tunes
or smiling for no apparent reason, and they both found their chores
suddenly lighter and easier. They worked faster, eager to finish
and once again spend some time playing with the child.

However, it wasn't many weeks before the old woodcutter and his wife
were forced to admit that they were simply too old and too poor to
raise the child as it should be, and that they ought in all fairness
to the babe to find a better home for it. "For," as the old woman
explained, "I love the child too much to keep him."

So the woodcutter took the child to a house where several holy women
lived and, after explaining the brief history of the child as he
knew it, asked for their help. "The wife and I don't have the
learning behind us, the money with us, or the years ahead of us to
raise this child as it ought to be raised," said the woodcutter to
the matron of the house, "so we'd appreciate it if you could find it
a proper home."

"Our small endowment provides us with only a modest living," the
matron said, "but we will care for the child until we can find out
whom it belongs to, or until we can find it a good home." So the
man left the child with them and went on with his wood cutting. The
matron of the house assigned care of the child to one of the newest
of the holy women, who could nurse it.

About this season in the kingdom, the queen gave birth to a son
also. The child, however, was weak and sickly, and failed to
flourish. In just a few weeks it developed a fever a