'By contract?' asked the man.

'Yes, by contract,' replied the stranger, 'and whichever of us breaks
it, shall have a strip of skin taken from his body.'

'All right,' replied the man; 'what shall I have to do?'

'Every day you must take the sheep out to pasture, and carry my old
mother on your shoulders, taking great care her feet shall never touch
the ground. And, besides that, you must catch, every evening, seven
singing birds for my seven sons.'

'That is easily done,' said the man.

Then they went back together, and the stranger said, 'Here are your
sheep; and now stoop down, and let my mother climb on your back.'

'Very good,' answered Mohammed's uncle.

The new shepherd did as he was told, and returned in the evening with
the old woman on his back, and the seven singing birds in his pocket,
which he gave to the seven boys, when they came to meet him. So the days
passed, each one exactly like the other.

At last, one night, he began to weep, and cried: 'Oh, what have I done,
that I should have to perform such hateful tasks?'

And his nephew Mohammed saw him from afar, and thought to himself, 'My
uncle is in trouble--I must go and help him;' and the next morning he
went to his master and said: 'Dear master, I must go to my uncle, and I
wish to send him here instead of myself, while I serve under his master.
And that you may know it is he and no other man, I will give him my
staff, and put my mantle on him.'

'All right,' said the master.

Mohammed set out on his journey, and in two days he arrived at the place
where his uncle was standing with the old woman on his back trying to
catch the birds as they flew past. And Mohammed touched him on the arm,
and spoke: 'Dear uncle, did I not warn you never to take service under
any blue-eyed red-haired man!

'But what could I do?' asked the uncle. 'I was hungry, and he passed,
and we signed a contract.'

'Give the contract to me!' said the young man.

'Here it is,' replied the uncle, holding it out.

'Now,' continued Mohammed, 'let the old woman get down from your back.'

'Oh no, I mustn't do that!' cried he.

But the nephew paid no attention, and went on talking: 'Do not worry
yourself about the future. I see my way out of it all. And, first, you
must take my stick and my mantle, and leave this place. After two days'
journey, straight before you, you will come to some tents which are
inhabited by shepherds. Go in there, and wait.'

'All right!' ans