and by the light of the moon he saw a Bird, whose shining feathers were of pure gold. The Bird settled on the tree, and was just plucking an apple when the young Prince shot an arrow at it. The Bird flew away, but the arrow hit its plumage, and one of the golden feathers fell to the ground. The Prince picked it up, and in the morning took it to the King and told him all that he had seen in the night.
The King assembled his council, and everybody declared that a feather like that was worth more than the whole kingdom. ‘If the feather is worth so much,’ said the King, ‘one will not satisfy me; I must and will have the whole Bird.’
The eldest, relying on his cleverness, set out in search of the Bird, and thought that he would be sure to find it soon.
When he had gone some distance he saw a Fox sitting by the edge of a wood ; he raised his gun and aimed at it. The Fox cried out, ‘Do not shoot me, and I will give you some good advice. You are going to look for the Golden Bird; you will come to a village at nightfall, where you will find two inns opposite each other. One of them will be brightly lighted, and there will be noise and revelry going on in it. Be sure you do not choose that one, but go into the other, even if you don’t like the look of it so well.’
‘How can a stupid animal like that give me good advice?’ thought the King’s son, and he pulled the trigger, but missed the Fox, who turned tail and made off into the wood.
Thereupon the Prince continued his journey, and at nightfall reached the village with the two inns. Singing and dancing were going on in the one, and the other had a poverty-stricken and decayed appearance.
‘I should be a fool,’ he said, ‘if I were to go to that miserable place with this good one so near.’
So he went into the noisy one, and lived there in rioting and revelry, forgetting the Bird, his father, and all his good counsels.
When some time had passed and the eldest son did not come back, the second prepared to start in quest of the
