im back the Golden Blackbird. It is a
long time since I set out, but no one can tell me where to find it.'

'Ah,' said the hare, 'you have a long way to go yet. You will have to
walk at least seven hundred miles before you get to it.'

'And how am I to travel such a distance?'

'Mount on my back,' said the little hare, 'and I will conduct you.'

The young man obeyed: at each bound the little hare went seven miles,
and it was not long before they reached a castle that was as large and
beautiful as a castle could be.

'The Golden Blackbird is in a little cabin near by,' said the little
hare, 'and you will easily find it. It lives in a little cage, with
another cage beside it made all of gold. But whatever you do, be sure
not to put it in the beautiful cage, or everybody in the castle will
know that you have stolen it.'

The youth found the Golden Blackbird standing on a wooden perch, but as
stiff and rigid as if he was dead. And beside the beautiful cage was the
cage of gold.

'Perhaps he would revive if I were to put him in that lovely cage,'
thought the youth.

The moment that Golden Bird had touched the bars of the splendid cage he
awoke, and began to whistle, so that all the servants of the castle ran
to see what was the matter, saying that he was a thief and must be put
in prison.

'No,' he answered, 'I am not a thief. If I have taken the Golden
Blackbird, it is only that it may cure my father, who is ill, and I have
travelled more than seven hundred miles in order to find it.'

'Well,' they replied, 'we will let you go, and will even give you the
Golden Bird, if you are able to bring us the Porcelain Maiden.'

The youth departed, weeping, and met the little hare, who was munching
wild thyme.

'What are you crying for, my friend?' asked the hare.

'It is because,' he answered, 'the castle people will not allow me to
carry off the Golden Blackbird without giving them the Porcelain Maiden
in exchange.'

'You have not followed my advice,' said the little hare. 'And you have
put the Golden Bird into the fine cage.'

'Alas! yes!'

'Don't despair! the Porcelain Maiden is a young girl, beautiful as
Venus, who dwells two hundred miles from here. Jump on my back and I
will take you there.'

The little hare, who took seven miles in a stride, was there in no time
at all, and he stopped on the borders of a lake.

'The Porcelain Maiden,' said the hare to the youth, 'will come here to
bathe with her friends