“There is not a river,” said he, “but has two banks.”
“Your question is answered; but you must tell me to-morrow the number of the stars.”
And he went home in the evening sorrowful and troubled. And his daughter asked him what ailed him, and he told her. She bade him not to be sorrowful, for she would tell him in the morning. And in the morning he went to his work, and his master came and asked him to count the number of the stars; and he said,—
“I will, if you put posts under them.”
And he could not do that, but he said,—
“I will hang you at twelve to-morrow, if you don’t give me the measure of the sea in quarts.”
And he went home to his daughter and told her, and in the morning, as he was going to work, she said,—
“Let him stop the rivers that are going into the sea or out of it, and you will measure it in quarts.”
So he gave that answer to his master, and his master could not stop the rivers.