the customer has no conscience.

* * * * *

THE SHEEP-BROTHER

Once there was a widow and she had a daughter. The widow married a
widower who had by his first wife two children, a boy and a girl. The
wife was always coaxing her husband: "Take the children, do, and lead
them up into the mountains." Her husband could not refuse her, and, lo!
one day he put some bread in his basket, took the children, and set off
for the mountain.

They went on and on and came to a strange place. Then the father said to
the children, "Rest here a little while," and the children sat down to
rest. The father turned his face away and wept bitterly, very bitterly.
Then he turned again to the children and said, "Eat something," and they
ate. Then the boy said, "Father, dear, I want a drink." The father took
his staff, stuck it into the ground, threw his coat over it, and said,
"Come here, my son, sit in the shadow of my coat, and I will get you
some water." The brother and sister stayed and the father went away and
forsook his children. Whether they waited a long time or a short time
before they saw that their father was not coming back is not known. They
wandered here and there looking for him, but saw no human being
anywhere.

At last they came back to the same spot, and, beginning to weep, they
said:

"Alas! Alas! See, here is father's staff, and here is his coat, and he
comes not, and he comes not."

Whether the brother and sister sat there a long time or a short time is
not known. They rose after a while, and one took the staff and the other
the coat, and they went away without knowing whither. They went on and
on and on, until they saw tracks of horses' hoofs filled with
rain-water.

"I am going to drink, sister," said the brother.

"Do not drink, little brother, or you will become a colt," said the
sister.

They passed on till they saw tracks of oxen's hoofs.

"O sister dear, how thirsty I am!"

"Do not drink, little brother, or you will be a calf," the sister said
to him.

They went on till they saw the tracks of buffalo hoofs.

"O sister dear, how thirsty I am!"

"Drink not, little brother, or you will be a buffalo calf."

They passed on and saw the tracks of bears' paws.

"Oh, I am so thirsty, sister dear."

"Drink not, little brother, or you will become a little bear."

They went on and saw the tracks of swine's trotters.

"O sister dear, I am going to drink."

"Drink