ow this is what you have to do: dress yourself like a Breton seeking a
place as stable-boy, and go and offer your services to your father. Once
there, you will easily be able to make him understand the truth.'

The young man did as the little hare bade him, and he went to his
father's castle and enquired if they were not in want of a stable-boy.

'Yes,' replied his father, 'very much indeed. But it is not an easy
place. There is a little horse in the stable which will not let anyone
go near it, and it has already kicked to death several people who have
tried to groom it.'

'I will undertake to groom it,' said the youth. 'I never saw the horse I
was afraid of yet.' The little horse allowed itself to be rubbed down
without a toss of its head and without a kick.

'Good gracious!' exclaimed the master; 'how is it that he lets you touch
him, when no one else can go near him?'

'Perhaps he knows me,' answered the stable-boy.

Two or three days later the master said to him: 'The Porcelain Maiden is
here: but, though she is as lovely as the dawn, she is so wicked that
she scratches everyone that approaches her. Try if she will accept your
services.'

When the youth entered the room where she was, the Golden Blackbird
broke forth into a joyful song, and the Porcelain Maiden sang too, and
jumped for joy.

'Good gracious!' cried the master. 'The Porcelain Maiden and the Golden
Blackbird know you too?'

'Yes,' replied the youth, 'and the Porcelain Maiden can tell you the
whole truth, if she only will.'

Then she told all that had happened, and how she had consented to follow
the young man who had captured the Golden Blackbird.

'Yes,' added the youth, 'I delivered my brothers, who were kept
prisoners in an inn, and, as a reward, they threw me into a lake. So I
disguised myself and came here, in order to prove the truth to you.'

So the old lord embraced his son, and promised that he should inherit
all his possessions, and he put to death the two elder ones, who had
deceived him and had tried to slay their own brother.

The young man married the Porcelain Maiden, and had a splendid
wedding-feast.

Sebillot.

_THE LITTLE SOLDIER_

I

Once upon a time there was a little soldier who had just come back from
the war. He was a brave little fellow, but he had lost neither arms nor
legs in battle. Still, the fighting was ended and the army disbanded, so
he had to return to the village where he was born.