he turtle.

'Now,' said the elder duck, pushing the stick gently towards his
friend, 'take this stick firmly in your mouth, and do not let it go
till we have set you down on earth again.'

The turtle did as he was told, and the ducks in their turn seized the
stick by the two ends, spread their wings and mounted swiftly into the
air, the turtle hanging between them.

For a while all went well. They swept across valleys, over great
mountains, above ruined cities, but no lake was to be seen anywhere.
Still, the turtle had faith in his friends, and bravely hung on to the
stick.

At length they saw in the distance a small village, and very soon they
were passing over the roofs of the houses. The people were so
astonished at the strange sight, that they all--men, women and
children--ran out to see it, and cried to each other:

'Look! look! behold a miracle! Two ducks supporting a turtle! Was ever
such a thing known before!' Indeed, so great was the surprise that men
left their ploughing and women their weaving in order to add their
voices to their friends'.

The ducks flew steadily on, heeding nothing of the commotion below;
but not so the turtle. At first he kept silence, as he had been bidden
to do, but at length the clamour below proved too much for him, and he
began to think that everyone was envying him the power of travelling
through the air. In an evil moment he forgot the promises he had made
so solemnly, and opened his mouth to reply, but, before he could utter
a word, he was rushing so swiftly through the air that he quickly
became unconscious, and in this state was dashed to pieces against the
side of a house. Then the ducks let fall after him the stick that had
held up their friend, and which was of no further use. Sadly they
looked at each other and shook their heads.

'We feared it would end so,' said they, 'yet, perhaps, he was right
after all. Certainly this death was better than the one which awaited
him.'

(From _Les Contes et Fables Indiennes_. Par M. Galland, 1724.)

_THE SNAKE PRINCE_

Once upon a time there lived by herself, in a city, an old woman who
was desperately poor. One day she found that she had only a handful of
flour left in the house, and no money to buy more nor hope of earning
it. Carrying her little brass pot, very sadly she made her way down to
the river to bathe and to obtain some water, thinking afterwards to
come home and to make herself an unleavened cake of what