and cattle were sold, and the uncle and nephew took the
money and went to see the world.

For ten days they travelled through the desert, and then they came to a
place where the road parted in two.

'Uncle!' said the boy.

'Well, what is it?' replied he.

'You see these two roads? You must take one, and I the other; for the
time has come when we must part.'

But the uncle cried, 'No, no, my boy, we will keep together always.'

'Alas! that cannot be,' said the boy; 'so tell me which way you will
go.'

'I will go to the west,' said the uncle.

'One word before I leave you,' continued the boy. 'Beware of any man who
has red hair and blue eyes. Take no service under him.'

'All right,' replied the uncle, and they parted.

For three days the man wandered on without any food, till he was very
hungry. Then, when he was almost fainting, a stranger met him and said,
'Will you work for me?'

'By contract?' asked the man.

'Yes, by contract,' replied the stranger, 'and whichever of us breaks
it, shall have a strip of skin taken from his body.'

'All right,' replied the man; 'what shall I have to do?'

'Every day you must take the sheep out to pasture, and carry my old
mother on your shoulders, taking great care her feet shall never touch
the ground. And, besides that, you must catch, every evening, seven
singing birds for my seven sons.'

'That is easily done,' said the man.

Then they went back together, and the stranger said, 'Here are your
sheep: and now stoop down, and let my mother climb on your back.'

'Very good,' answered Mohammed's uncle.

The new shepherd did as he was told, and returned in the evening with
the old woman on his back, and the seven singing birds in his pocket,
which he gave to the seven boys, when they came to meet him. So the days
passed, each one exactly like the other.

At last, one night, he began to weep, and cried: 'Oh, what have I done,
that I should have to perform such hateful tasks?'

And his nephew Mohammed saw him from afar, and thought to himself, 'My
uncle is in trouble--I must go and help him;' and the next morning he
went to his master and said: 'Dear master, I must go to my uncle, and I
wish to send him here instead of myself, while I serve under his master.
And that you may know it is he and no other man, I will give him my
staff, and put my mantle on him.'

'All right,' said the master.

Mohammed set out on his journey, and in two days he arrived at the place