son as painlessly as possible. I believe you say you are expecting him
any moment. Just lie down here and pretend that you are sick. When the
boy comes in tell him that you have a terrible pain in your eyes. As
you have lived long in the forest you will know that the best remedy
for a pain in your eyes is the oil of the deadly _cobra_ of the
jungle. Send the lad out into the jungle to obtain this oil for you,
and I promise you he will never return alive. I'll go back into my
room and bar the door so the boy will never see me, but I shall listen
through the wall to know whether you carry out my command."

At that very moment they heard the lad's footsteps and his gay voice
at the door. The giant went inside his room and barred the door. The
lad's mother lay down with a cloth over her eyes, moaning in loud
tones. "The giant little knows the strength and skill of the lad whose
mother I am," she said to herself as she smiled amidst her moans and
groans.

"O dear little mother, what evil has befallen you during my absence?"
asked the boy as he entered the room.

His mother complained of the pain in her eyes just as the giant had
instructed. "The only thing which will cure me of this terrible
affliction is the oil of the _cobra_," she said.

The boy well knew the dangers which attended securing the oil from the
deadly _cobra_ of the jungle, but never in his life had he disregarded
a request from his mother. He at once set out for the jungle; and, in
spite of the perils of the deed, he succeeded in obtaining the oil
which his mother had requested.

On the way back to the city, the boy met a little old woman carrying a
pole over her shoulder from which there hung, head downward, several
live fowls which she was taking to market. It was really the Holy
Mother herself who had come to aid the lad in answer to his mother's
prayer.

"Where are you going, my lad?" asked the old woman. The boy told his
story and showed the precious oil which he had obtained from the
_cobra_. "The day is coming, the day is coming, my lad, when you will,
in truth, need the _cobra's_ oil," said the little old woman. "But
that day is not today. Today hen's oil will serve your purpose just as
well. You may kill one of my hens and use the hen's oil, but leave the
_cobra's_ oil with me so that I may keep it safely for you until the
day when you will require it."

The boy heeded the advice of the little old woman and killed one of
her hens. He left