drowned. I will land
you at Kungla free of payment, as you are so anxious to get there. So he
gave him dry clothes to wear, and a berth to sleep in, and Tiidu and his
friend secretly made merry over their cunning trick.

For the rest of the voyage the ship's crew treated Tiidu as something
higher than themselves, seeing that in all their lives they had never
met with any man that could swim for as many hours as he had done. This
pleased Tiidu very much, though he knew that he had really done nothing
to deserve it, and in return he delighted them by tunes on his pipes.
When, after some days, they cast anchor at Kungla, the story of his
wonderful swim brought him many friends, for everybody wished to hear
him tell the tale himself. This might have been all very well, had not
Tiidu lived in dread that some day he would be asked to give proof of
his marvellous swimming powers, and then everything would be found out.
Meanwhile he was dazzled with the splendour around him, and more than
ever he longed for part of the riches, about which the owners seemed to
care so little.

He wandered through the streets for many days, seeking some one who
wanted a servant; but though more than one person would have been glad
to engage him, they seemed to Tiidu not the sort of people to help him
to get rich quickly. At last, when he had almost made up his mind that
he must accept the next place offered him, he happened to knock at the
door of a rich merchant who was in need of a scullion, and gladly agreed
to do the cook's bidding, and it was in this merchant's house that he
first learned how great were the riches of the land of Kungla. All the
vessels which in other countries are made of iron, copper, brass, or
tin, in Kungla were made of silver, or even of gold. The food was cooked
in silver saucepans, the bread baked in a silver oven, while the dishes
and their covers were all of gold. Even the very pigs' troughs were of
silver too. But the sight of these things only made Tiidu more covetous
than before. 'What is the use of all this wealth that I have constantly
before my eyes,' thought he, 'if none of it is mine? I shall never grow
rich by what I earn as a scullion, even though I am paid as much in a
month as I should get elsewhere in a year.'

By this time he had been in his place for two years, and had put by
quite a large sum of money. His passion of saving had increased to such
a pitch that it was only by his master's orders that