“That was a very pretty trick,” said the father; “but after all three hundred dollars is not much. It will barely buy us a cow and clothes and put a new roof on the hut.”
“Yes, but that is not the only trick I know,” answered the son. “Look at the hill over yonder and tell me what you see.”
The father looked. “I see a company of fine ladies and gentlemen,” answered the father, “and they are flying their falcons.”
“I will change myself into a falcon, and when you have come to where they are you shall loose me, and I will strike down a quail. Then they will want to buy me. Sell me for three hundred dollars, no more, no less. But whatever you do take off my hood and keep it, or misfortune will surely overtake us.”
The father promised he would do this, and then the lad turned himself into a falcon and perched upon his father’s hand.
Presently the father came up to where the ladies and gentlemen were at their sport. They loosed their falcons, and the falcons flew after the quail, but always they failed to strike, and the quail escaped.
“That is poor sport,” said the man. “I can show you better.”
He took off the hood and cast his falcon at the quail, and it quickly struck down its prey.
The gentlemen and ladies were astonished at the quickness of the falcon and at the beauty of its feathers.
“Sell us the bird,” they said.