eat, so run off for some sticks, and don't forget yourself on the
way, but come back as quick as you can, and we will boil
ourselves some cabbage, to keep the life in us."

Away went the stupid Peruonto, hanging down his head as if he
was going to gaol. Away he went, walking as if he were a jackdaw,
or treading on eggs, counting his steps, at the pace of a snail's
gallop, and making all sorts of zigzags and excursions on his way
to the wood, to come there after the fashion of a raven. And when
he reached the middle of a plain, through which ran a river
growling and murmuring at the bad manners of the stones that
were stopping its way, he saw three youths who had made
themselves a bed of grass and a pillow of a great flint stone, and
were lying sound asleep under the blaze of the Sun, who was
shooting his rays down on them point blank. When Peruonto saw
these poor creatures, looking as if they were in the midst of a
fountain of fire, he felt pity for them, and cutting some branches of
oak, he made a handsome arbour over them. Meanwhile, the
youths, who were the sons of a fairy, awoke, and, seeing the
kindness and courtesy of Peruonto, they gave him a charm, that
every thing he asked for should be done.

Peruonto, having performed this good action, went his ways
towards the wood, where he made up such an enormous faggot
that it would have needed an engine to draw it; and, seeing that he
could not in any way get in on his back, he set himself astride of it
and cried, "Oh, what a lucky fellow I should be if this faggot
would carry me riding a-horseback!" And the word was hardly out
of his mouth when the faggot began to trot and gallop like a great
horse, and when it came in front of the King's palace it pranced