Page:Tales of the Punjab.pdf/151

Rh NCE upon a time there lived a King who had two young sons; they were good boys, and sat in school learning all that king's sons ought to know,Bur while they were still learning, the Queen their mother died, and their mother died, and their father the King shortly after married again.Of course the new wife was jealous of the two young Princes, and, as stepmothers usually do, she soon began to ill-use the poor boys.First she gave them barley-meal instead of wheaten cakes to cat, and then even these were made without salt.After a time, the meal of which the cakes were made was sour and full of weevils; so matters went on from bad to worse, until at last she took to beating the poor young Princes, and when they cried, she complained to the King of their disobedience and peevishness, so that he too was angry, and beat them again.

At length the lads agreed it was high time to seek some remedy.

'Let us go into world,' said the younger, 'and earn our own living.'