ased. 'Be sure that he does not run away,' chuckled he.
'Boil some water, and get him ready for cooking, while I go and
invite my friends the water-demons to the feast.'

[Illustration: THE DEATH OF THE BAD ONE]

The woman seized Ball-Carrier between her finger and thumb, and was
going to carry him to the kitchen, when the boy spoke:

'I am very lean and small now,' he said, 'hardly worth the trouble of
cooking; but if you were to keep me two days, and gave me plenty of
food, I should get big and fat. As it is, your friends the
water-demons would think you meant to laugh at them, when they found
that _I_ was the feast.'

'Well, perhaps you are right,' answered the Bad One; 'I will keep you
for two days.' And he went out to visit the water-demons.

Meanwhile the servant, whose name was Lung-Woman, led him into a
little shed, and chained him up to a ring in the wall. But food was
given him every hour, and at the end of two days he was as fat and big
as a Christmas turkey, and could hardly move his head from one side to
the other.

'He will do now,' said the Bad One, who came constantly to see how he
was getting on. 'I shall go and tell the water-demons that we expect
them to dinner to-night. Put the kettle on the fire, but be sure on no
account to taste the broth.'

Lung-Woman lost no time in obeying her orders. She built up the fire,
which had got very low, filled the kettle with water, and passing a
rope which hung from the ceiling through the handle, swung it over the
flames. Then she brought in Ball-Carrier, who, seeing all these
preparations, wished that as long as _he_ was in the kettle the water
might not really boil, though it would hiss and bubble, and also, that
the spirits would turn the water into fat.

The kettle soon began to sing and bubble, and Ball-Carrier was lifted
in. Very soon the fat which was to make the sauce rose to the surface,
and Ball-Carrier, who was bobbing about from one side to the other,
called out that Lung-Woman had better taste the broth, as he thought
that some salt should be added to it. The servant knew quite well that
her master had forbidden her to do anything of the kind, but when once
the idea was put into her head, she found the smell from the kettle so
delicious that she unhooked a long ladle from the wall and plunged it
into the kettle.

'You will spill it all, if you stand so far off,' said the boy; 'why
don't you come a little nearer?' And as she did so he cried