Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 4, 1893.djvu/350

 342 sweat just dropped from his face while he lifted the pan full of gold out of the hole.

For indeed it was full of gold to the top; the old sparrow had not lied. He took the gold home too that same evening, and the next morning he began at the lower end of the village, and did not stop until he had distributed half among the poor.

He gained great esteem in the village, you may be sure! And then, moreover, when his neighbour's cow fell ill, and he knew from its lowing what was the matter with it, and was able to cure it besides, the whole village and the neighbourhood too, for a great distance round, came to him, bringing all their sick animals, and he cured them.

But when he had nothing else to do, he always wandered out in the woods and fields, and listened to what the birds were saying. One day, being very tired with wandering about so much, he sat down on the roots of a tree. While he was lying there idly, a raven overhead spoke and said, "Ah! if the person who is dozing under the tree knew what I know, he would be the king's son-in-law in a week!"

"If he knew what, then?" asked the other ravens.

"Why, this, that the king's daughter has lost her precious gold cross, and now she has bound herself not to marry anyone but the man who shall produce the gold cross, for it is a keepsake from her dear mother. Well, indeed, she will keep her párta all her life, for the man who can find it is not yet born into this world. It is in a good place here, in the hollow of the tree. The old king, however, has had a proclamation made throughout the whole kingdom that he will give his daughter and half his kingdom to whoever produces the gold cross."

The lad laughed to himself, and thought, "You have spoken just at the right time, you chattering raven!"

He waited for them to fly away, and then he climbed up the tree, and actually found the gold cross in the hollow.