The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1899-03-01
THE ''OLD ONE.v

stake this corn to the mill and grind
It," said a peasant to his son.
"All right, father, said the lad, and he
shouldered the sack of corn.
But beware" cautioned the father,
"not to grind the corn II the old one Is
there.
Have no fear, father, III take care,
cried the lad as he gayly went Off with his
load
In 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 20 himself,
"In go on TO the next mill and grind my
corn.
He came TO the second mHl-and the
sack of corn seemed to be growing very
heavy-and there again he found the old
one grinding his corn.
"Botherl" growlcd out the boy. Il
suppose l 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 10 and behold, there again,
to his extreme Indignation, was the old
one grinding his corn.
"Not a step farther will 60" mutterod
the boy, rubbing the sweat of his dusty
face with his shirt sleeve I'm wait II
need be to the crack of doom, and when he
has ground his corn III grind mine"
Hello, youngsterf cried the old one,
who now pretended to see the lad for the
first time What do you want here,
prayf"
Il want to grind my corn. /"
"Ohl was here first, said the old
one, and l can't let you come until
have finished, and shall be ages yet.
You can't grind three mills at one
time" angrily said the boy.
IN tell you what III do, said the
man, taking no notice Of the boys taunt.
"I'n agree that each tell one another a
tale, and whoever tells the most improba-
BILE, impossible tale shall have the mill to
grind his corn"
We'll, that seems fair enough" said
the boy. Tell your tale first, and then
III tell mine"
Good" said the old one. And he
told long tale, and 1t WASH t very funny,
and 1t wasn't very wise, SO l won't tell 1t
to you here.
Cant you do better than thats" sneer-
cd the boy.
Lets see what you can do, my young
cock "a -crowl' snarled the old one, angry
to see that his tale had made 30 little i'm
preston.
"Well, In my young days was quite an
old man." commenced the boy. EVERY
morning I used to count the bees. That
was quite easy, you know, but never
could count the beehives, for there were 50
many"
"That's curious" grunted the old one.
Zone morning the queen bee was miss
ing. Without moments loss Of time I
saddled my cock and set off In search Of
the bee. Very soon came upon her
track She had flown across the sea, but
l wasn't to be daunted," said the boy,
land stopped by the sea. So rode across
it on bridge. As soon as / arrived at
the other side / saw the queen bee har-
messed to pillow and blowing a beanfeld.
That's my bee, called out to the man
who was guiding the pillow.
4" Take it and welcome said he. And
he gave me back my bee and bog full OF
beans in payment for Its labor. Then
hung the bag of beans on the bees back,
took the saddle off the cock and buckled il
on the bee The poor bird was so tagged
and tired he couldn't go a step farther, 80
/ took hold of his hand and led him along.
All went we'll until we we're just at the
end of the bridge Then the string of the
bag broke, and all the beans rolled with a
rush and roar into the sea. was tired
out by this time" said the boy, and
could not be bothered any more, SO just
tied the cock TO the bee and lay down on
the seashore and went to sleep"
Tiled the cook TO the beer" repeated the
old one in inoredulous tones.
when awoke In the morning." con-
tinued the boy disdainfully, unheedlng
the interruption, II 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
honets" gibed the old one.
Lick up the honey Oh, you sillyP'
said the boy, shaking his head. "There
were rivers of honey. They ha6 been
drowned in the honey. But oeuldn I
wait. l picked up hatchet and ran with
it into the forest. There l saw two stays
leaping about ON one leg l rushed al
them, killed them with one blow of my
Ratchet, skinned them and made two
leather bottles of their skins. These
filled with honey, slung them across thu
cocks back and flew away home. When
got home, my father was just born, and
my mother said must go TO heaven and
get some holy water, SO that he could bs
properly baptized. But the trouble was
How was I to get therea During the night
my beans had taken root and grown, and
they were so tremendously high that they
reached the. skies. climbed up and VI
and up and at last I reached heaven.
When l got there, they asked me what
had come for told them for some holy
water for my father, At onos they gave
it to me.
Then turned back to como TO earth
but found that violent storm had arts
en- and hurled down my beanrtalks, sn'