The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1898-05-13
Beating the "oId One.

shouldered the sack of corn.
But beware" cautioned the father,
mot to grind the corn if the Old One is
there"
Have no fear, father. I'll take care. +"
cried the lad, as he gayIy went of with
his load
In a little time he arrived at the mill,
and there, TO his anger, he found the Old
One grinding his corn.
Never mind" said the boy to himself,
''TI go on to the next mill and grind
my corn
He came to the second miIl-and the sack
of corn seemed to be growing very heavy
and there again he found the Old One
grinding his corn.
"Bothert" growIed out the boy. ct sup
pose must yet go to the next mill, and
there I'll surely grind my corn"
Painting and putting he arrived at the
third mill. And loi and behold, there again
to his extreme Indignation was the Old
One grinding his corn.
Not a step further will co. muttered
the boy, rubbing the sweat off his dusty
face with his shirt sleeve. III wait, If
need be, to the crack of doom, and when
| he has ground his corn I'll grind NINE"
"Halioa! youngster," cried the Old One.
who now pretended to see the lad for
the first time. What do you want hen,
pray?"
II want to grind my corn"
| ooh, was here first. said the Old One,
''and I can't let you come until l have
finished and I shall be ages yet"
You can't grind three mills at one
| time angrily said the boy.
! 'Ill tell you what I'll do said the man,
taking no notice of the boys taunt. I'm
agree that each tell one another tale,
and whoever tells the most improbable
impossible tale shall have the mill to
grind his corn"
well, that seems fair enough" said
the boy. Tell your tale first, and then
| I'll tell mine
Good said the Old One, and he told
a long tale, and it wasn't very funny, and
| it wasn't very wise, so I won't tell it to
Cant you do better than that?" sheer
ed the boy.
:" Let's see what you can do, my young
cock-a-crow," snarled the Old One, angry
to see that his tale had made SO little
impression.
well. in my younger days I was quite
an old man. commenced the boy. Every
morning I used to count the bees. That
was quite easy, you know, but I never
could count the beehives, for there were
so many"
That's curious grunted the Old One.
zone morning the Queen Bee was miss
ing. Without a moments loss of time
1 saddled my cock and set off in search
of the bee. Very soon I came upon her
track. She had flown across the sea. But
I wasn't to be daunted," said the boy,
land stopped by the sea- So rode across
it on a bridge. AS soon as 1 arrived at
~. I, e-;/1 7 TQaa hay--
messed to pillow and blowing bean field.
That's my bee 1 called out to the man
who was guiding the plow.
Take it and welcome said he. And
he gave me back my bee and a bag full
of beans in payment for its labor. Then
I hung the bag of beans on the bees back
and took the saddle off the cock and buck
led it on the bee. The poor. bird was SO
tagged and tired he couldn't go step fur
Their. so I took hold of his hand and led
him along. All went well until we were
just at the end of the bridge, then the
string of the bag broke and all the beans
rolled with a rush and a roar into the
sea. I was tired out by this time" said
the boy, and l could not be bothered any
more, so L just tied the cock to the bee
and lay down on the seashore and went
to Sleep
'lleQ the COCK TO the pee, repeated the
Old One, in increduous tones.
"When I awoke in the morning" con-
tinued the boy. disdainfully, unheeding the
interruption. 81 saw that the bears had
eaten my bee and all the honey had run
out of its body"
''Why didn't the bears lick up the hon.
ey?" gibed the Old One.
Lick up the honey Oh. you silly"
said the boy, shaking his head. There
We're rivers of honey. They had been
drowned in the honey. But I couldn't
wait; picked up a Ratchet and ran with
it into the forest There 1 saw two stays
leaping about on one leg. 1 rushed at
them, killed them with one blow of my
Ratchet, skinned them. and made two
leather bottles of their skins. These I
filled with honey, slung them across the
cocks back and flew away home. When
I got home my father was just born, and
my mother said / must go to heaven and
get some holy water, so that he could
be properly baptized. But the trouble was,
how was I to get there? During the night
my beans had taken root and grown, and
they were so tremendously high that they
reached the skies. l climbed up, and up,
and up, and at last I reached heaven.
When l got there they asked me what I
had come for. 1 told them for some holy
water for my father. At once they gave
it TO me-
Then I turned back TO come to earth,
but found that violent storm had aris-
en- and hurled down my beanstalks, and
for a moment I must allow / was at my
wits ends to know how l could get down.
But / soon solved that difficulty and
the lad drew himself up with pretended
pride while 1 was climbing the beam
stalks my hair had grown so long that
it reached half way down to the earth
I tugged it all off, plated it in six fold
strands, and at once began to slide down.
It grew dark before | was quarter way
down, so ! made a loop in the hair, swung
myself into it. and went TO sleep. 1t was
a very cozy bed. | assure you. l must
have slept for about a couple of hours
when 1 awoke. but benumbed with cold
Luckily l had a needle stuck in my coat
I split it, lit fire with the chips, warm
ed myself. and again laid down and fell
asleep A spark from the fire fell on my
hair rope and burned it apart. so that
il divided into two, and 1 fell down TO
the earth and sank into il up TO the chest.
1 could not move, and SO l was obliged
to go home and fetch spade and dig my
self out. AS l was crossing our field
continued the boy, with a very serious air,
Il found that the reapers were cutting
the corn, but the heat was so intense that
they declared they could not work any
longer. So l just ran as fast as I could
TO the stables and fetched our mare. She
IS two days long and as broad as mid
night. with beech trees growing on her
back, and under her shadow the reapers
were able to continue TO cut the corn.
The reapers now began 10 complain that
+Nar v1-e-a they xggrfzA Scvy,a srzsb
cool water 10 drink. They had been 70 the
weir 10 get some. but il was all frozen
over SO took of my head. broke a hole