Page:Wonder Tales from Tibet.djvu/62

34 "I can restore your goats to you," said the bird, "that which you lost to-day, and those which your sisters lost before you."

"Oh, you are most kind!" cried the girl. "Give them to me, I beg, and I will hasten home and trouble you no longer!"

"Not so fast! Not so fast!" replied the bird. "Wait and hear my conditions. Your sisters refused them with scorn and preferred to endure all the ill-treatment and abuse at home rather than to consider for a moment what I proposed."

"They must be hard conditions indeed," said Ananda, "to make me refuse them and go home goatless to my angry father! Tell me, good bird—what are they?"

"This is the bargain I propose," said the white bird slowly. "If you will marry me and live in luxury here, in my palace cave, I will send all the goats straightway back to your father. Moreover, you shall have all that your heart can desire, in so far as wealth can give it. Come, now! I will let you have fifteen minutes in which