thought there were too many children, for his
life had seemed more full of joy since they appeared, but now it came to
the point he did not know how he was to feed them. The cow had ceased to
give milk, and it was too early for the fruit trees to ripen.

'Do you know, old woman!' said he one day to his wife, 'I must go out
into the world and try to bring back food somehow, though I cannot tell
where it is to come from.'

To the hungry man any road is long, and then there was always the
thought that he had to satisfy a hundred greedy children as well as
himself.

Stan wandered, and wandered, and wandered, till he reached to the end of
the world, where that which is, is mingled with that which is not, and
there he saw, a little way off, a sheepfold, with seven sheep in it. In
the shadow of some trees lay the rest of the flock.

Stan crept up, hoping that he might manage to decoy some of them away
quietly, and drive them home for food for his family, but he soon found
this could not be. For at midnight he heard a rushing noise, and through
the air flew a dragon, who drove apart a ram, a sheep, and a lamb, and
three fine cattle that were lying down close by. And besides these he
took the milk of seventy-seven sheep, and carried it home to his old
mother, that she might bathe in it and grow young again. And this
happened every night.

The shepherd bewailed himself in vain: the dragon only laughed, and Stan
saw that this was not the place to get food for his family.

But though he quite understood that it was almost hopeless to fight
against such a powerful monster, yet the thought of the hungry children
at home clung to him like a burr, and would not be shaken off, and at
last he said to the shepherd, 'What will you give me if I rid you of the
dragon?'

'One of every three rams, one of every three sheep, one of every three
lambs,' answered the herd.

'It is a bargain,' replied Stan, though at the moment he did not know
how, supposing he DID come off the victor, he would ever be able to
drive so large a flock home.

However, that matter could be settled later. At present night was not
far off, and he must consider how best to fight with the dragon.

Just at midnight, a horrible feeling that was new and strange to him
came over Stan--a feeling that he could not put into words even to
himself, but which almost forced him to give up the battle and take
the shortest road home again. He half turned; then he remembered