So he set off to find his fortune, and on the way he saw a tigress, licking her paw, and moaning mournfully. He was just about to run away from the terrible creature, when she called to him faintly, saying. 'Good lad, if you will take out this thorn for me, I shall be for ever grateful.'
‘Not I!’ answered the lad. ‘why, if I begin to
pull it out, and it pains you, you will kill me with a part of your paw.'
'No, no!' cried the tigress. 'I will turn my face to this tree, and when the pain comes I will pat it.'
To this the soldier's son agreed; so he pulled out the thorn, and when the pain came the tigress gave the tree such a blow that the trunk split all to pieces. Then she turned towards the soldier's son, and said gratefully, 'Take this box as a reward, my son, but do not open it until you have travelled nine miles.'
