Then the cow leader said: “Why should we discuss things about which we know nothing? We do not seem to understand our master. The meeting is ended.”
On their way home the little pigs made a big noise, and each said gleefully, “Wee, wee! We won, we won!”
The old horses and oxen discussed the subject among themselves, but they arrived at no conclusion. “Certainly we are stronger, wiser, and more useful than the pigs,” they said. “Why does our master treat us so?”
THE SOLDIER AND THE DRAGON
THERE was once a young soldier who went far away from his home to fight in a war. When the war was over and he returned, his father and mother had died, and no one was left in the family but himself. His entire inheritance was a cow and two sheep, and these he decided to sell. “Then,” said he, “I will seek my fortune somewhere else, instead of remaining here in poverty.”
The cow and the sheep were sold, and the soldier set out on his travels. After walking for about a week, he one day found himself in a great forest, and toward night he came to an old castle with the woods all around it. The castle door was open, and he entered. Not a person was to be seen, but on a long table was food enough ready for eating to serve a score. The soldier stood a long time silently waiting in the hope that the dwellers in the castle would appear and invite him to eat with them. But he waited in vain. The castle seemed to be abandoned, and at last the soldier said: “Upon my word, it is a shame to neglect this food any longer. I may as well eat. Surely no one will greatly blame me for doing so.”
He seated himself at the table, and though at first somewhat anxious, ate and drank with a good appetite. By the time he finished, his confidence was fully restored, and he went to look through the adjoining rooms. In one he found heaps of rich merchandise, in another were many bags and boxes of gold, silver, and jewels, while in a third the walls were half hidden by a great array of guns.
“This castle is a robbers’ den,” said the soldier when he saw all this, “and the robbers have gone off on some expedition. They will doubtless soon return; but since I am here I will take possession of this treasure and these guns, and drive the robbers away.”
He began to prepare the castle as well as he could to stand a siege. After barricading the doors and windows, he loaded all the guns and sat down to wait. Presently he heard the robbers coming, and he took his place at a window that commanded the approach to the castle. Close at hand he had set a large number of guns ready loaded, and he immediately began to fire. The robbers were vastly astonished, and, though there were fully twenty of them, they dropped the booty with which they were laden and retired to shelter. But they reappeared shortly, and threw themselves against the heavy door, raging and swearing. The door, however, withstood their battering, and as the soldier killed or wounded one of them at every shot, they in a short time ran off, carrying the wounded with them, and were lost to sight in the forest.