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NCE upon a time there was a poor boy whom everybody called Yanechek. His father and mother were dead and he was forced to start out alone in the world to make a living. For a long time he could find nothing to do. He wandered on and on and at last he came to a little house that stood by itself near the edge of the woods. An old man sat on the doorstep and Yanechek could see that he was blind, for there were empty holes where his eyes used to be.

Some goats that were penned in a shed near the house began bleating and the old man said:

“You poor things, you want to go to pasture, don’t you? But I can’t see to drive you and I have no one else to send.”

“Send me, grandfather,” Yanechek said. “Take me as your goatherd and let me work for you.”

“Who are you?” the old man asked.