“Now, mother,” he said, “I can earn enough to keep us both, and we shall be happy here together.”
Day after day he went out and cut the wood, and at night carried it to the village and sold it; and they always had plenty to eat and what they needed to make them happy and comfortable.
One day the boy went further up the hill than he had ever gone before in search of better timber. As he climbed up the steep hillside, he suddenly came upon a lion carved from stone.
“O!” thought the boy, “this must be the guardian deity of this mountain. I will make him some offering tomorrow.”
That night he bought two candles, and carried them to the lion. He lighted them and put one on each side of the lion, praying that his own good fortune might continue.
As he stood there, suddenly the lion opened his great stone mouth, and said:
“What are you doing here?”
The boy told him all the story of his hard-hearted brother, and how he and his mother had left home, and were living in the hut at the foot of the hill.
When he had heard all of the story, the lion said: