along; they are even larger than lentils, and will show her the
way.'

But when the maiden started off with the basket on her arm, the
wood pigeons had eaten up the peas, and she did not know which
way to go. She was much distressed, and thought constantly of her
poor hungry father and her anxious mother. At last, when it grew
dark, she saw the little light, and came to the house in the
wood. She asked prettily if she might stay there for the night,
and the man with the white beard asked his beasts again:

Pretty cock,
Pretty hen,
And you, pretty brindled cow,
What do you say now?

'Duks,' they said. Then the maiden stepped up to the stove where
the animals were lying, and stroked the cock and the hen, and
scratched the brindled cow between its horns.

And when at the bidding of the old man she had prepared a good
supper, and the dishes were standing on the table, she said,
'Shall I have plenty while the good beasts have nothing? There is
food to spare outside; I will attend to them first.'

Then she went out and fetched barley and strewed it before the
cock and hen, and brought the cow an armful of sweet-smelling
hay.

'Eat that, dear beasts,' she said,' and when you are thirsty you