lay them at her feet. And the villagers watched her return
laden, and said to each other:

'Surely the girls of her country are stronger than our girls, for none
of them could cut so quickly or carry so much!' But then, nobody knew
that she had a buffalo for a servant.

Only, all this time she never gave the poor buffalo anything to eat,
because she had just one dish, out of which she and her husband ate;
while in her old home there was a dish put aside expressly for the Rover
of the Plain. The buffalo bore it as long as he could; but, one day,
when his mistress bade him go to the lake and fetch water, his knees
almost gave way from hunger. He kept silence, however, till the evening,
when he said to his mistress:

'I am nearly starved; I have not touched food since I came here. I can
work no more.'

'Alas!' answered she, 'what can I do? I have only one dish in the house.
You will have to steal some beans from the fields. Take a few here and a
few there; but be sure not to take too many from one place, or the owner
may notice it.'

Now the buffalo had always lived an honest life, but if his mistress did
not feed him, he must get food for himself. So that night, when all the
village was asleep, he came out from the wood and ate a few beans here
and a few there, as his mistress had bidden him. And when at last his
hunger was satisfied, he crept back to his lair. But a buffalo is not
a fairy, and the next morning, when the women arrived to work in the
fields, they stood still with astonishment, and said to each other:

'Just look at this; a savage beast has been destroying our crops, and we
can see the traces of his feet!' And they hurried to their homes to tell
their tale.

In the evening the girl crept out to the buffalo's hiding-place, and
said to him:

'They perceived what happened, of course; so to-night you had better
seek your supper further off.' And the buffalo nodded his head and
followed her counsel; but in the morning, when these women also went out
to work, the races of hoofs were plainly to be seen, and they hastened
to tell their husbands, and begged them to bring their guns, and to
watch for the robber.

It happened that the stranger girl's husband was the best marksman
in all the village, and he hid himself behind the trunk of a tree and
waited.

The buffalo, thinking that they would probably make a search for him in
the fields he had laid waste the evening before, returned to the bean
patch b