tents on the other side of the water.'

The old woman stared at him in horror as she listened to his
proposal. Other people had tried to steal fire before, and few
indeed had come back with their lives; but as, contrary to all
her expectations, he had managed to catch such a number of fish,
she thought that perhaps there was some magic about him which she
did not know of, and did not try to hinder him.

When the fish were all taken out, he fetched the net which he had
laid out to dry, folded it up very small, and ran down to the
river, hoping that he might find a place narrow enough for him to
jump over; but he soon saw that it was too wide for even the best
jumper in the world. For a few moments he stood there, wondering
what was to be done, then there darted into his head some words
of a spell which he had once heard a wizard use, while drinking
from the river. He repeated them, as well as he could remember,
and waited to see what would happen. In five minutes such a
grunting and a puffing was heard, and columns of water rose into
the air, though he could not tell what had made them. Then round
the bend of the stream came fifteen huge whales, which he ordered
to place themselves heads to tails, like stepping stones, so that
he could jump from one to the other till he landed on the
opposite shore. Directly he got there he told the whales that he
did not need them any more, and sat down in the sand to rest.

Unluckily some children who were playing about caught sight of
him, and one of them, stealing softly up behind him, laid tight
hold of his ears. The hare, who had been watching the whales as
they sailed down the river, gave a violent start, and struggled