into the forest to hunt the boy would beg to remain at
home with his mother. While his father was away she would sit on the
ground before their hut and unfold to the boy all her memories of
their old life.

"Father," said the lad one day after his father had returned from his
hunting trip, "I am tired of living here in the forest all by
ourselves. Let us return to the city to live."

"Your mother has been telling tales to you," replied his father. "I
will see to it that she never mentions the city to you again. We left
the city to save our lives. Let me never hear from you another word
about returning to the city."

After that the lad was made to accompany his father when he went out
hunting. There was no more opportunity to hear the tales he loved from
his mother's lips. Nevertheless he hid away in his mind all that his
mother had told him of their old life; and at night, when the fierce
storms in the forest or the sound of the wild beasts would not let him
sleep, he often lay awake upon his mat on the floor of the hut,
pondering over the stories she had told.

At last the father grew sick of a fever and died. Now that the lad and
his mother were left alone in the forest the lad said, "Come, let us
return to our home in the city. Let us not stay here alone in the
forest any longer. I must live in my own life the tales you have told
me of the _festas_ and the dancing, the great tournaments, and the
songs at night under the balconies of the fair maidens."

The lad's request was so urgent that his mother could not have refused
him, even if she, in her own heart, was not longing for a return to
the life of the city. Accordingly, they took all their possessions,
which consisted only of a horse and a sword, and set out for the city.

The lad and his mother reached the city at nightfall. They went from
one street to another, but saw no living being. They knocked and
clapped their hands before all the doors of the city, but no one
responded. At last they reached the street where their old home had
been. The lad was delighted to see what a big handsome house it was.
"No wonder my mother longed to return to a home like this," he
thought. "How could she ever have endured the rude hut in the depths
of the forest?"

The doors of the beautiful house stood wide open. The lad and his
mother entered, and passed from one room to another. His mother saw
one room after another with everything unchanged. She recognized one
object