He came to a hut. In that hut he beholds a lad, as it were ten years old, who asked him, ‘What seekest thou, Peterkin, here?’
‘I seek the place where there is neither death nor old age.’
The lad said, ‘Here is neither death nor old age. I am the Wind.’
Then Peterkin said, ‘Never, never will I go from here.’ And he dwelt there a hundred years and grew no older.
There the lad dwelt, and he went out to hunt in the Mountains of Gold and Silver, and he could scarce carry home the game.
Then what said the Wind to him? ‘Peterkin, go unto all the Mountains of Gold and unto the Mountains of Silver; but go not to the Mountain of Regret or to the Valley of Grief.’
He heeded not, but went to the Mountain of Regret and [[61]]the Valley of Grief. And Grief cast him down; he wept till his eyes were full.
And he went to the Wind. ‘I am going home to my father, I will not stay longer.’
‘Go not, for your father is dead, and brothers you have no more left at home. A million years have come and gone since then. The spot is not known where your father’s palace stood. They have planted melons on it; it is but an hour since I passed that way.’
But the lad departed thence, and arrived at the maiden’s whose was the palace of copper. Only one stick remained, and she cut it and grew old. As he knocked at the door, the stick fell and she died. He buried her, and departed thence. And he came to the queen of the birds in the great forest. Only one branch remained, and that was all but through.