Part 30 (1/2)

”What! Will you kill me as a reward for my kindness?”

”Nay,” the snake said. ”Do not be afraid. I will not injure you. Do as I tell you and you will have nothing to regret. My father is the Tsar of the Snakes. Take me to him and he will reward you for rescuing me.”

”But I can't leave my flocks,” the shepherd said.

”Have no fear about your flocks. Nothing will happen to them in your absence.”

”But I don't know where your father, the Tsar of the Snakes, lives,” the shepherd protested.

”I'll show you,” the snake said. ”I'll point out the direction with my tail.”

So in spite of his misgivings the shepherd at last agreed to the snake's suggestion and, leaving his sheep in G.o.d's care, started up the mountainside in the direction which the snake pointed out with his tail.

They reached finally a sort of pocket in the hills which was sandy and rocky and exposed to the full force of the sun. The snake directed the shepherd to the entrance of a cave which had a huge door composed entirely of living snakes closely wound together. The shepherd's snake said something in his breathy whistling voice and the door pulled itself apart and allowed the shepherd to enter the cave.

”Now,” whispered the snake, ”when my father asks you what you want, tell him you want the gift of understanding the language of the animals. He will try to give you something else but don't you accept anything else.”

The Tsar of the Snakes was a huge creature clothed in a gorgeous skin of red and yellow and black. They found him reclining on a golden table with a crown of precious jewels on his head.

”My son!” he cried, when he saw the snake that was still wound about the shepherd's neck, ”where have you been? We have been grieving for you thinking you had met some misfortune.”

”But for this shepherd, my father,” the snake said, ”I should have been burned to death. He rescued me.”

Then he told the Tsar of the Snakes the whole story. The Tsar of the Snakes listened carefully and when the Snake Prince was finished he turned to the shepherd and said:

”Sir, I am deeply indebted to you for saving my son's life. Ask of me anything I can grant and it is yours.”

”Give me then,” the shepherd said, ”the gift of understanding the language of the animals.”

”Not that!” the Tsar of the Snakes cried. ”It is too dangerous a gift!

If ever you confessed to some other human being that you had this gift and repeated what some animal said you would die that instant. Ask something else--anything else!”

”No,” the shepherd insisted. ”Give me that or nothing!”

When the Tsar of the Snakes saw that the shepherd was not to be dissuaded, he said:

”Very well, then. What must be, must be. Come now very close to me and put your mouth against my mouth. Do you breathe three times into my mouth and I shall breathe three times into your mouth. Then you will understand the language of the animals.”

So the shepherd put his mouth close to the mouth of the Tsar of the Snakes and breathed into it three times. Then the Tsar of the Snakes breathed into the shepherd's mouth three times.

”Now you will understand the language of all animals,” the Tsar of the Snakes said. ”It is a dangerous gift but if you remember my warning it may bring you great prosperity. Farewell.”

So the shepherd went back to his flocks and lay down under a fir tree to rest. Presently he wondered whether he hadn't been asleep and dreamed about the burning bush and the snake and the Tsar of the Snakes.

”It can't be real!” he said to himself. ”How can I or any man understand the language of the animals!”

[Ill.u.s.tration: _The Tsar of the Snakes Listened Carefully_]

Just then two ravens alighted on the tree above his head.