your bed for sale?" "Yes," he said. "What a
beautiful bed it is!" said the king. "Who made it?" "I did," he said.
"I made it myself." "How much do you want for it?" said the king.
"One thousand rupees," answered the merchant's son. "That is a great
deal for the bed," said the king. "I will not take less," said the
merchant's son. "Good," said the king, "I will give you the thousand
rupees." So he took the bed, and the merchant's son said to him, "The
first night you pass on it, do not go to sleep. Take care to keep
awake, and you will hear and see something." Then he took the rupees
home to his wife, who was frightened when she saw them. "Are those
your rupees?" she said. "Where did you find such a quantity of
rupees?" "The king gave them to me for my bed," he said. "I am not a
thief; I did not steal them." Then she was happy.

That night the king lay down on his bed, and at ten o'clock he heard
one of the bed's legs say to the other legs, "Listen, you three. I am
going out to see the king's country. Do you all stand firm while I am
away, and take care not to let the king fall." "Good," the three legs
answered; "go and eat the air, and we will all stand fast, so that the
king does not fall while you are away."

Then the king saw the leg leave the bed, and go out of his room door.
The leg went out to a great plain, and there it saw two snakes
quarrelling together. One snake said, "I will bite the king." The
other said, "I will bite him." The first said, "No, you won't; I will
climb on to his bed and bite him." "That you will never do," said the
second. "You cannot climb on to his bed; but I will get into his shoe,
and then when he puts it on to-morrow morning, I will bite his foot."

The bed-leg came back and told the other legs what it had seen and
heard. "If the king will shake his shoe before he puts it on to-morrow
morning," it said, "he will see a snake drop out of it." The king
heard all that was said.

"Now," said the second bed-leg, "I will go out and eat the air of the
king's country. Do you all stand firm while I am away." "Go," the
others answered; "we will take care the king does not fall." The
second bed-leg then went out, and went to another plain on which stood
a very old palace belonging to the king, and the wind told it the
palace was so ruinous that it would fall and kill the king the first
time he went into it: the king had never once had it repaired. So it
came back and told the three other legs