Once there were two brothers who lived with their mother in a large house on a farm. Their father was dead. The older brother was clever and selfish, but the younger was kind and gentle. The older brother did not like the younger because he was so honest that he never could get the best of a bargain. One day he said to him: “You must go away. I cannot afford to support you any longer.”

So the younger brother packed all his belongings, and went to bid his mother good-by. When she heard what the older brother had done, she said, “I will go with you, my son. I will not live here any longer with so hard-hearted a man as your brother.”

49The next morning the mother and the younger brother started out together. Toward night when they reached the foot of the hill, they came to a hut with nothing in it except an ax which stood behind the door. But they managed to get their supper and stayed in the hut all night.

In the morning they saw that on the side of the hill near the hut was a great forest. The son took the ax, went up on the hillside and chopped enough wood for a load to carry to the town on the other side of the hill. He easily sold it, and with a happy heart brought back food and some clothing to make his mother and himself comfortable.

“Now, mother,” he said, “I can earn enough to keep us both, and we shall be happy here together.”

One day, in search of timber, the boy went farther up the hill than he had ever gone before. As he climbed up the steep hillside, he suddenly came upon a lion carved from stone.

“Oh,” thought the boy, “this must be the guardian spirit of the mountain. I will make 50him some offering to-morrow morning without fail.”

That night he bought two candles and carried them to the lion. He lighted them, put one on each side of the lion, and asked that his own good fortune might continue.

As he stood there, suddenly, the lion opened his great stone mouth and said:

“What are you doing here?”

The boy told him how cruel the elder brother had been; how the mother and himself had been obliged to leave home and live in a hut at the foot of the hill. When he had heard all of the story, the lion said:

“If you will bring a bucket here to-morrow and put it under my mouth, I will fill it with gold for you.”

The next day the boy brought the bucket.

“You must be very careful to tell me when it is nearly full,” said the lion, “for if even one piece of gold should fall to the ground, great trouble would be in store for you.”

The boy was very careful to............