"Is that you, my friend?" he exclaimed. "I have been waiting for you a long time. I am hungry now, and want my breakfast." IV THE LION'S SECRET Once upon a time there were two brothers, who were orphans. The oldest was named Mahobane and the youngest Lovallec. These unfortunate children had been beggars since they were six years of age. They went from house to house and from village to village, on mountains and in valleys, but wherever they went their cry was the same: "Good friends! give us alms! Kind friends! help the unfortunate!" Their lot was a hard one, even as children, but it was harder as they grew older, for when the oldest was twenty they discovered that they had only succeeded, after all their efforts, in keeping soul and body together. Finally, one day, Mahobane exclaimed: "I know what I shall do to make a great deal of money in a very short time." "What is it?" cried Lovallec. "One of us," said the eldest, "will have to become blind and lead the other by the hand, going from house to house and along the public highways asking for alms from the people and from the travellers." "You are right," said Lovallec, "but, alas! neither one of us is blind." "It will be easy enough," said the other, "to become so." "How can that be?" asked Lovallec. "Oh, easy enough," said the elder. "One of us will have to put out his eyes." "Oh, no!" exclaimed the younger; "that would make one of us suffer too much." "Ah," said Mahobane, to the younger, "you are timid, you are tender-hearted: What is a little suffering in comparison with the happy times we should have? the soft beds we should sleep in, the fine meats that will be offered us, and the good wines we have not tasted in so long? But it does not follow that you are to be blind," continued Mahobane; "the lot may fall to me instead of you." "So be it," said the younger; "let us draw straws." Mahobane prepared the straws, and arranged very cleverly to cheat his younger brother. He had no sooner carried his point than he put out his brother's eyes with a thorn. Lovallec screamed loudly under the pain of this operation, but the only sympathy he got from his cruel brother was this: "Cry louder, my brother! cry louder! for here the people are passing, and when they behold your condition they will give us money." It was even so. Silver and pennies fell into the wooden bowl they carried, and this success was continued for more than a year. Then a wicked thought entered the head of Mahobane, the eldest, and he made up his mind to get rid of his unfortunate brother. So one day he carried him into the great forest and left him to wander alone and find his way out as best he could; but, being blind, this he was unable to do.