Page:The Grey Fairy Book.djvu/199

Rh ‘I will come too,’ said the little boy.

‘Go then!’ said his mother, and they went together.

On the way the boy began: ‘Dear uncle, this night my mother means to kill both of us, by poisoning us with the bones of the serpent, which she will grind to powder and sprinkle in our food.’

‘And what are we to do?’ asked the uncle.

‘I will kill her, dear uncle. I do not want either a father or a mother like that!’

When they came home in the evening they saw the woman preparing supper, and secretly scattering the powdered bones of the serpent on one side of the dish. On the other, where she meant to eat herself, there was no poison.

And the boy whispered to his uncle, ‘Dear uncle, be sure you eat from the same side of the dish as I do!’

‘All right,’ said the uncle.

So they all three sat down to the table, but before they helped themselves the boy said, ‘I am thirsty, mother; will you get me some milk?’

‘Very well,’ said she, ‘but you had better begin your supper.’

And when she came back with the milk they were both eating busily.

‘Sit down and have something too,’ said the boy, and she sat down and helped herself from the dish, but at the very first moment she sank dead upon the ground.

‘She has got what she meant for us,’ observed the boy; ‘and now we will sell all the sheep and cattle.’

So the sheep and cattle were sold, and the uncle and nephew took the money and went to see the world.

For ten days they travelled through the desert, and then they came to a place where the road parted in two.

‘Uncle!’ said the boy.

‘Well, what is it?’ replied he.

‘You see these two roads? You must take one, and I the other; for the time has come when we must part.’