But suddenly he stopped. Looking down to where a tiny stream wound through the gulch, he saw a horse. It was saddled and bridled, which seemed very strange to him.
“I wonder if some one has fallen and needs help,” he murmured.
So, although he wanted to be on his way, he climbed down over the crags.
It was as he feared. A man was lying there, motionless as if dead. He was dressed in heavy armor, by which the lad knew he was some one rich and great.
Pulling off the helmet to use as a dipper, he ran to the river for water, and poured it over the drawn, white face.
The rider opened his eyes slowly, and when he saw the youth kneeling beside him said, “Thank God for sending you! I fell down over the cliffs, and thought I was to lie here and die. Oh, I am so weak and faint!” he sighed.
The peasant boy remembered the pretty eggs in his bundle that were intended for his little brother and sister at home. “But they would want me to give them to this poor fellow,” he thought. So he shelled one and held it to the trembling lips.
The man ate it as if nearly starved, and another and another. Then, seeing the motto on the one that was still unbroken, he opened his eyes wide.
“Stop,” he said as the boy was about to break it. “Let me have it as it is and I will give you a gold piece for it.”