The young shepherd placed himself on the threshold of the door to count them; but the first was already far away when the last was set at liberty; so much so, that when he reached the meadow he had not a single hare with him. He sat himself down pensively, not daring to believe in the virtue of his whistle. However, he had no other resource, and placing the whistle to his lips he blew into it with all his might. [Illustration: "HE BLEW WITH ALL HIS MIGHT."] The whistle gave forth a sharp and prolonged sound. Immediately, to his great astonishment, from right and left, from before him and behind him--from all sides, in fact--leapt the hundred hares, and set to quietly browsing on the meadow around him. News was brought to the King, how the young shepherd had probably resolved the problem of the hares. The King conferred on the matter with his daughter. Both were greatly vexed; for if the young shepherd succeeded with the two other problems as well as he had with the first, the Princess would become the wife of a simple peasant, than which nothing could be more humiliating to royal pride. "You think over the matter," said the Princess to her father, "and I will do the same." The Princess retired to her chamber, and disguised herself in such a way as to render herself unrecognisable; then she had a horse brought for her, mounted it, and went to the young shepherd. The hundred hares were frisking joyously about him. "Will you sell me one of your hares?" asked the young Princess. "I would not sell you one of my hares for all the gold in the world," replied the shepherd; "but you may gain one." "At what price?" asked the Princess. "By dismounting from your horse and sitting by me on the grass for a quarter of an hour." The Princess made some objections, but as there was no other means of obtaining the hare, she descended to the ground, and seated herself by the young shepherd. [Illustration: "THE PRINCESS SEATED HERSELF BY THE YOUNG SHEPHERD."] The hundred hares leaped and bounded around him. At the end of a quarter of an hour, during which the young shepherd said a hundred tender things to her, she rose and claimed her hare, which the shepherd, faithful to his promise, gave her. The Princess joyfully shut it in a basket which she carried at the bow of her saddle, and rode back towards the palace. But hardly had she ridden a quarter of a league, when the young shepherd placed his whistle to his lips and blew into it; and, at this imperative call, the hare forced up the lid of the basket, sprang to the ground, and made off as fast as his legs would carry him. A moment afterwards, the shepherd saw a peasant coming towards him, mounted on a donkey. It was the old King, also disguised, who had quitted the palace with the same intention as his daughter. A large bag hung from the donkey's saddle. "Will you sell me one of your hares?" he asked of the young shepherd.