ing. Ferko fell fast asleep, but the
other two remained awake, and the eldest said to the second brother,
'What do you say to doing our brother Ferko some harm? He is so
beautiful that everyone takes a fancy to him, which is more than they do
to us. If we could only get him out of the way we might succeed better.'

'I quite agree with you,' answered the second brother, 'and my advice
is to eat up his loaf of bread, and then to refuse to give him a bit
of ours until he has promised to let us put out his eyes or break his
legs.'

His eldest brother was delighted with this proposal, and the two wicked
wretches seized Ferko's loaf and ate it all up, while the poor boy was
still asleep.

When he did awake he felt very hungry and turned to eat his bread, but
his brothers cried out, 'You ate your loaf in your sleep, you glutton,
and you may starve as long as you like, but you won't get a scrap of
ours.'

Ferko was at a loss to understand how he could have eaten in his sleep,
but he said nothing, and fasted all that day and the next night. But
on the following morning he was so hungry that he burst into tears, and
implored his brothers to give him a little bit of their bread. Then the
cruel creatures laughed, and repeated what they had said the day before;
but when Ferko continued to beg and beseech them, the eldest said at
last, 'If you will let us put out one of your eyes and break one of your
legs, then we will give you a bit of our bread.'

At these words poor Ferko wept more bitterly than before, and bore the
torments of hunger till the sun was high in the heavens; then he could
stand it no longer, and he consented to allow his left eye to be put out
and his left leg to be broken. When this was done he stretched out his
hand eagerly for the piece of bread, but his brothers gave him such a
tiny scrap that the starving youth finished it in a moment and besought
them for a second bit.

But the more Ferko wept and told his brothers that he was dying of
hunger, the more they laughed and scolded him for his greed. So he
endured the pangs of starvation all that day, but when night came his
endurance gave way, and he let his right eye be put out and his right
leg broken for a second piece of bread.

After his brothers had thus successfully maimed and disfigured him for
life, they left him groaning on the ground and continued their journey
without him.

Poor Ferko ate up the scrap of bread they had left him and wept
bitt