“Dear, dear, this will never do, I must dodge him. I’ll change into a hare and sneak off into the bushes,” thought the boy; but no sooner had the boy become a hare than the old man became a greyhound, and began to get very close to him indeed. “Oh, dear! he is gaining on me, I shall change into a bird, and fly into the trees;” but no sooner had the boy become a little bird than the old man became a hawk and got closer still.
“Look!” cried a lady who sat at the window in her room, “look at the hawk chasing that poor little bird.” Quickly she opened the window, and the little bird flew in. To her astonishment it changed at once into a ring, and, lo, there it was on her finger!
A knock was heard at the door. “Come in,” said the lady. In came a little old man dressed in brown.
“Madam, I have lost a little bird; it was being chased by a hawk; it flew in here.”
“Yes,” answered the lady; “a strange thing happened; no sooner had it flown in here than it became a ring on my finger.”
“Madam, I claim my property,” said the little old man, stretching out his hand for the ring.
She took off the ring sadly, but it slipped from her fingers and rolled into the passage.
“What shall I do?” thought the boy. “I know, I’ll turn into a great bundle of straw, and crowd him out of the place.” You see, he was such a selfish boy he never even thought about the lady who had allowed him to fly into the room.
The lady was horrified to see the door filled up with straw; but, lo! the little old man at once turned himself into a donkey, and began to eat the straw. At every mouthful he of course ate what was really a piece of the boy, and the boy knew he must soon die at that rate. Hurriedly the boy changed himself into a mouse, but, alas! there was no mouse-hole for him to run and hide in, and before he could reach the door, the cat that belonged to the lady saw him, pounced upon him, and ate him up.
So that was the end of the boy who tried to get rich by stealing and lying. You might think that the £1,100 the old man had given the father made him a rich man for life. Not so, the neighbours and he soon spent it in gambling and drink, and in a short time he was as poor as he had been before his son began practising his magic tricks.