THE STORY OF THE BLACK COW
There was a certain Brahmin whose wife died leaving him one little son. For some time the two lived happily together, but at last the Brahmin married for a second time, and the woman, who had a daughter of her own, was very unkind to her little stepson.
Each day the two children went out together to attend to the cattle, and at night they returned home to eat their food. But the cakes made by the Brahmin’s wife for her stepson were of ashes, with just a little flour mixed in to give them the appearance of food, that the Brahmin might not notice; and the child ate in silence, for he was afraid to complain, yet, when he was alone in the forest he wept from hunger, and a black cow, one of the herd, saw this, and asked him what was the matter.
The boy told her everything, and presently she beat her hoofs upon the ground. As she did so, sweets of all kinds appeared, which the child ate greedily, and shared with his little sister, warning her the while not to mention at home what the black cow had done, lest the stepmother should be angry.
The stepmother meanwhile wondered to see how well the boy looked, and she resolved to keep watch, for she suspected that he drank the milk while tending her cows; so she told her little daughter to keep a good look-out on all his doings, and to let her know. At last the girl confessed that they ate sweets every day, and the black cow provided the feast.
That day when the Brahmin came home his wife begged him to sell the black cow, and said she would neither sleep nor eat until this was done.
The poor boy was sad indeed when he heard this, and went at once to his favourite, where, throwing himself on the black cow’s neck, he wept bitterly.
“Do not weep, my child, but get up on my back, and I will carry you to a place of safety where we can still be together.”
So they escaped to a forest, and there lived in peace and security for many days.