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 turning round on his rushes and sleepily rubbing his eyes. "If you are so anxious to take to the road start now, by all means, and leave me in peace to finish my sleep. I shall, no doubt, catch you up somewhere between here and Ben Edar."

When Cael heard the Carle speak so confidently he began to have some misgivings as to whether the race would belong to him after all, and took to the road at once. But the Carle turned round on his couch again and slept for another while; when his sleep was ended he leisurely rose and washed himself, then sat down to the table and breakfasted off the remaining half of the boar and pile of bread, and drank the other barrel of wine.

"I'd better take these bones with me; they may happen in handy," he said to himself, as his glance rested on the pig's rib and leg bones, so he packed them up in the tails of his coat before starting on his journey. Then away he went, with the speed of an arrow flying from the bow, or a swallow skimming through the clear air; and though Cael had two or three hours' start it was not long till the Carle over-