“May I go, too?”
“If I take you, will you help me win my fortune?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“I will croak, and peck your enemies’ eyes out with my sharp beak.”
“Very well, you may come.”
On and on they walked till at last they entered a deep, dark wood. All day they journeyed through this forest, which grew denser and darker as night came on.
“We are near a clearing in this wood,” croaked the raven, who had been soaring above the treetops. “Let us keep right on.”
Suddenly all were startled by a bright light, the brightest any of them had ever seen. It flashed out through the trees directly in front of them. It fairly dazzled and blinded them. Then it as suddenly disappeared, and left them standing terrified in the pitch-black darkness of the night.