he year, but not without informing his
foster-parents.

The village where the prince had thus taken service was not far from a
great highway, along which many people passed daily, both high and low.
The royal herd-boy often sat close to the road, and talked to the
passers-by, from whom he learned many things which would otherwise have
remained unknown to him. So it happened one day that an old man with
grey hair and a long white beard passed that way when the prince was
sitting on a stone and playing the flute while the animals were grazing,
and if one of them strayed too far from the others, the boy's dog drove
it back. The old man gazed awhile at the boy and his flock, and then he
went a few paces nearer and said, "You don't seem to have been born a
herd-boy." The boy answered, "It may be so; I only know that I was born
to be a ruler, and first learned the business of a ruler. If it goes
well with the quadrupeds, I will perhaps try my fortune later on with
the bipeds." The old man shook his head in wonder and went his way.
Another time a handsome coach passed by, in which sat a lady and two
children. There was a coachman on the box and a footman behind. The
prince happened to have a basket of freshly-plucked strawberries in his
hand, which attracted the notice of the proud Saxon lady.[151] She
ordered the coachman to stop, and called out from the coach-window,
"Come here, you lout, and bring me the strawberries. I will give you a
few copecks for them, to buy wheaten bread." The royal herd-boy did as
if he had heard nothing, and did not imagine that the order was
addressed to him, while the lady called out a second and a third time;
but it was as if she had spoken to the wind. Then she called to the
footman behind, "Go and give that vagabond a box on the ear, to teach
him to listen." The footman jumped down to execute the order. But before
he reached him, the herd-boy jumped up, seized a thick stick, and called
out to the footman, "If you don't want a broken head, don't come a step
nearer, or I'll smash your face." The footman went back and reported the
occurrence. Then the lady cried out angrily, "What, you rascal, are you
afraid of this lout of a boy? Go and take away his basket by force. I'll
show him who I am, and I'll punish his parents too, for not bringing him
up better."

"Oho!" cried the herd-boy, who heard the order. "As long as there is any
life in my limbs, nobody shall deprive me of my rightful property b