THE CRANE.
There were once a man and his wife who had two daughters and one son, the youngest born, and he was but a baby. It fell on a day that the father and mother set out for the gardens and bade the girls bathe their little brother, and moreover to cook some food that he might eat.
Now, when the children were left alone, the elder girl said to her sister, "Our mother bade us slay our brother and cook his flesh, therefore let us obey her."
"Nay, sister," quoth the younger, "our mother said not so."
But the elder girl would not hearken, and forth-with she slew the little child, and made ready his flesh, and cooked it in a pot over the fire.
Presently came the man and his wife, and saw what had been done, and were very wroth with the children, and drove them forth into a desolate land, where was no house nor any food growing. Then were the hearts of the girls sad within them, and they wept sore. And afterwards they were an hungered, and sought for food, but found none. But after much searching they caught some grasshoppers and lizards, and also of snakes a few, and laid what they had caught in a basket, and went on, looking for a house where they might ask for fire, so that
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