There was before them a lake that was five miles in length and five miles in breadth. ‘I am thirsty now,’ says the Mule, ‘after that feed I had. And I’ll stop now till I’ll take a drink,’ he says. ‘Do not,’ says the Fool, ‘or you will be heavy and not able to go.’ ‘Wait till you see that,’ says the Mule. So he stopped and he began to drink, and he never stopped till he had drunk up the whole of the lake that was five miles in length and five miles in breadth. They went on again till they came to a mountain that was before them, and the whole of the mountain was in one blaze, and there was a high wall before it, fifteen feet high. ‘Hold on now,’ says the Mule. ‘Here, at it,’ says the Fool, and the Mule crossed it with one leap; and when he came where the blaze was, he let out of his mouth all the water of the lake he had swallowed, and it quenched the blaze, and there they saw before them the bird. But if they did it went under ground, and the Mule followed it under ground into the enchanted place where it lived; and when they got there, it was not a bird, but the finest young lady that could be seen, and a King’s daughter. The Fool asked her then to come along with him till he would marry her. ‘I will not,’ she said, ‘until such time as you will find my father, that I have hidden away from you.’ So he brought the Mule out to the stable, and he didn’t know where to go look for the King. And when they were in the stable the Mule said: ‘The young lady has a hen clutching, and the place where it is clutching is in her own room, under her bed. And under it you will find eleven eggs,’ he said, ‘and one of them is yellow and spotted. And take that one in your hand, and be going to smash it against the floor, and the King that is inside of it will cry out and will ask you to spare his life.’ So he went looking for the hen, and all happened as the Mule had said. ‘Will you marry me now?’ says he to the young lady. ‘I will not,’ says she, ‘till you find my father that I have hidden a second time.’ So the place where she hid her father that time was in a duck’s bill, and she put the duck out swimming in the middle of a pond. The young man went then to the stable and asked the Mule did he know where the King was hidden, and the Mule told him it was in the duck’s bill. ‘And look at my tail,’ he said, ‘and see is there e’er a grey rib in it.’ So he looked, and there was a grey rib. ‘Pull it out,’ says the Mule, ‘and bring it to the pond where the duck is, and throw it out over the water, and however far the duck is, that rib will bring it back to the land. And catch a hold of it then, and threaten to cut the neck of it, and the King will cry out from its bill and ask you to spare him.’ So he did all that, and he spared the King, and then he went to the King’s daughter. ‘Will you marry me this time?’ says he. ‘I will not,’ says she, ‘till you find my father the third time.’ The place she hid him the third time was in a block of wood, and