The Wonder Clock; or, four & twenty marvellous Tales: being one for each hour of the day — John Shaqi
The Wonder Clock; or, four & twenty marvellous Tales: being one for each hour of the dayPyle, Howard
Science
The Wonder Clock; or, four & twenty marvellous Tales: being one for each hour of the day
Pyle, Howard
Children's poetry; Fairy tales
So the next morning he took the faithful servant on his back, and away
he flew till the man’s hair whistled behind him. On they went and on
they went and on they went, until at last they came to the country that
lay east of the Sun and west of the Moon; and they were none too soon
getting there either, I can tell you, for when the North Wind tumbled
the faithful servant off his back he was so weak that he could not have
lifted a feather.
“Thank you,” said the faithful servant, and then he was for starting
away to find what he came for.
“Stop a bit,” says the North Wind, “you will be wanting to come away
again after a while. I cannot wait here, for I have other business to
look after. But here is a feather; when you want me, cast it into the
air, and I will not be long in coming.”
Then away he bustled, for he had caught his breath again, and time was
none too long for him.
The faithful servant walked along a great distance until, by and by, he
came to a field covered all over with sharp rocks and white bones, for
he was not the first by many who had been that way for a cup of the
Water of Life.
[Illustration: The North Wind flies with y^e Faithful Servant.]
There lay the great fiery dragon in the sun, sound asleep, and so the
faithful servant had time to look about him. Not far away was a great
deep trench like a drain in a swampy field; that was a path that the
dragon had made by going to the river for a drink of water every day.
The faithful servant dug a hole in the bottom of this trench, and there
he hid himself as snugly as a cricket in the crack in the kitchen floor.
By and by the dragon awoke and found that he was thirsty, and then
started down to the river to get a drink. The faithful servant lay as
still as a mouse until the dragon was just above where he was hidden;
then he thrust his sword through its heart, and there it lay, after a
turn or two, as dead as a stone.
After that he had only to fill the cup at the fountain, for there was
nobody to say nay to him. Then he cast the feather into the air, and
there was the North Wind, as fresh and as sound as ever. The North Wind
took him upon its back, and away it flew until it came home again.
The faithful servant thanked them all around—the Four Winds and the old
woman—and as they would take nothing else, he gave them a few drops of
the Water of Life, and that is the reason that the Four Winds and their
mother are as fresh and young now as they were when the world began.
Then the faithful servant set off home again, right foot foremost, and
he was not as long in getting there as in coming.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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