one by one.
When the last one was out, Batcha tried to follow, but the rock swung
shut in his face, again locking him in.

The old king serpent hissed at him in a deep breathy voice:

"Hah, you miserable man creature, you can't get out! You're here and
here you stay!"

"But I can't stay here," Batcha said. "What can I do in here? I can't
sleep forever! You must let me out! I have sheep at pasture and a
scolding wife at home in the valley. She'll have a thing or two to say
if I'm late in getting back!"

Batcha pleaded and argued until at last the old serpent said:

"Very well, I'll let you out, but not until you have made me a triple
oath that you won't tell any one how you came in."

Batcha agreed to this. Three times he swore a mighty oath not to tell
any one how he had entered the cavern.

"I warn you," the old serpent said, as he opened the wall, "if you break
this oath a terrible fate will overtake you!"

Without another word Batcha hurried through the opening.

Once outside he looked about him in surprise. Everything seemed
changed. It was autumn when he had followed the serpents into the
cavern. Now it was spring!

"What has happened?" he cried in fright. "Oh, what an unfortunate fellow
I am! Have I slept through the winter? Where are my sheep? And my
wife--what will she say?"

With trembling knees he made his way to his hut. His wife was busy
inside. He could see her through the open door. He didn't know what to
say to her at first, so he slipped into the sheepfold and hid himself
while he tried to think out some likely story.

While he was crouching there, he saw a finely dressed gentleman come to
the door of the hut and ask his wife where her husband was.

The woman burst into tears and explained to the stranger that one day in
the previous autumn her husband had taken out his sheep as usual and had
never come back.

"Dunay, the dog," she said, "drove home the sheep and from that day to
this nothing has ever been heard of my poor husband. I suppose a wolf
devoured him, or the witches caught him and tore him to pieces and
scattered him over the mountain. And here I am left, a poor forsaken
widow! Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear!"

Her grief was so great that Batcha leaped out of the sheepfold to
comfort her.

"There, there, dear wife, don't cry! Here I am, alive and well! No wolf
ate me, no witches caught me. I've been asleep in the sheepfold--that's
all. I must have slept all winter long!"

At