an returned to his
room. As he wanted to make sure, however, whether his son had gone
or not, he again went to see. When he found Juan in the same position
as before, he became very angry, and said,--

"Juan, if I come out again and find you still here, I shall surely
give you a whipping." Juan knew well that his father would punish him
if he did not go; so he rose up suddenly, took his axe, and went to
the forest.

When he came to the forest, he marked every tree that he thought would
be good for fuel, and then he began cutting. While he was chopping
at one of the trees, he saw that it had a hole in the trunk, and in
the hole he saw something glistening. Thinking that there might be
gold inside the hole, he hastened to cut the tree down; but a monster
came out of the hole as soon as the tree fell.

When Juan saw the unexpected being, he raised his axe to kill the
monster. Before giving the blow, he exclaimed, "Aha! Now is the time
for you to die."

The monster moved backward when it saw the blow ready to fall,
and said,--

"Good sir, forbear,
And my life spare,
If you wish a happy life
And, besides, a pretty wife."

Juan lowered his axe, and said, "Oho! is that so?"

"Yes, I swear," answered the monster.

"But what is it, and where is it?" said Juan, raising his axe, and
feigning to be angry, for he was anxious to get what the monster
promised him. The monster told Juan to take from the middle of his
tongue a white oval stone. From it he could ask for and get whatever he
wanted to have. Juan opened the monster's mouth and took the valuable
stone. Immediately the monster disappeared.

The young man then tested the virtues of his charm by asking it for
some men to help him work. As soon as he had spoken the last word of
his command, there appeared many persons, some of whom cut down trees,
while others carried the wood to his house. When Juan was sure that
his house was surrounded by piles of fire-wood, he dismissed the
men, hurried home, and lay down again behind the fireplace. He had
not been there long, when his father came to see if he had done his
work. When the old man saw his son stretched out on the floor, he said,
"Juan have we fire-wood now?"

"Just look out of the window and see, father!" said Juan. Great was
the surprise of the old man when he saw the large piles of wood about
his house.

The next day Juan, remembering the pretty wife of which the monster