ized his stone, and sent it whistling through
the air like an arrow. It rose up till it was nearly lost to sight, and
then turned and fell on the shore close to the water, where it sank for
half its bulk into the mud. Then came the turn of the third, who,
though the youngest, was much taller and stronger than his brothers.

The youngest brother made some sad reflections on his posthumous birth,
and on the course of his childhood, and then cast forth his rock like a
bird, or like a ship in a storm. It flew up far and high, but not up to
the clouds, like that cast by his brother, and afterwards made great
ducks and drakes across the whole lake, reaching at last the firm ground
beyond.

"Don't let us wait here," said the eldest brother, "but let us go and
look for the stones, and decide our competition." As the nearest way to
the opposite shore was through the lake, they waded straight across it,
and at the deepest place the water reached a little above their knees.
The stone cast by the eldest brother had disappeared entirely in the
water, and no trace of it could be found; but that thrown by the second
was found on the shore half sunken in the mud. Only the stone thrown by
the youngest brother, easily recognisable by its marks, was found on
firm ground, lying on the grass at some little distance beyond the lake.
Then the eldest brother declared that the gods had plainly assigned the
kingdom to the youngest, and that the others must now bathe him and
adorn him as king.[49] After this the three brothers took an
affectionate leave of each other, and the two elder ones wandered
cheerfully away. The youngest sat on the rock sadly reflecting on the
lost joys of youth, and how he must now depend on his own unaided
efforts. At length he threw a silver coin into the water as an offering
to the gods, an old custom now forgotten.

It was the duty of the new king both to plough the country and to defend
it, and he therefore set to work with his sword by his side. Early and
late he ploughed, stocking the country with corn, grass, trees, and
berries.

One hot noonday, seeing his white horse[50] nearly exhausted, he unyoked
him from the plough, hobbled him, and left him to graze, while he
himself lay down in the grass and fell asleep. His head rested on the
top of a hill, and his body and legs spread far over the plain below.
The sweat ran from his forehead and sank into the earth, whence arose a
healing and strengthening spring of