1 Now you who have read this story will remember how Two-Legs, many years ago, mastered all the animals on earth.
 
Those which he could use and which obeyed him as they should he tamed and took into his service. Those which he could not employ he let alone, provided only that they left him and his in peace. If they did not, then he waged war upon them, nor ceased until he had prevailed against them. He always ended by , for he was the cleverest, you see, and therefore the strongest.
 
And, little by little, the tame animals grew so much accustomed to being with him and so completely lost the qualities with which they had been to shift for themselves that they could no longer do without their . When, once in a way, they escaped and tried to live like the other, free, wild animals, they could not manage at all, but perished .
 
But the wild animals which Two-Legs had no use for round about in their hiding-places and and muttered and made no progress and did themselves no good.
 
 
2
At the time when this particular story begins, Two-Legs had put up a new summer tent in a green meadow, not far from the beach.
 
He was sitting outside it one evening, while the was closing in. All the family had gone to bed and were sleeping soundly after the of the day. All the cattle lay in the grass, and chewing the cud. The dog, his faithful servant, lay on the ground before him, up his ears at every sound, sleeping with one eye and watching with the other.
 
Two-Legs did not sleep himself.
 
He was old now and no longer needed so much rest. And he was not tired either as in former days, for he now had so many children and grandchildren that they were able to do most of the work. Himself, he loved best to sit quietly, to think of what had happened to him in his life and to on the things that were yet to come.
 
When he sat like that, he often seemed to hear voices on either side of him. They came from the spring that past him, from the tree whose leaves whispered over his head, from the evening breeze that cooled his brow:
 
“Two-Legs ... the lord of the earth ... the cleverest ... the strongest,” rippled the spring.
 
“Two-Legs ... the of the lion ... the terror of the wild animals ... the protector of the tame,” whispered the tree.
 
“Two-Legs ... whom no one can understand ... to whom all things belong,” sang the evening breeze.
 
Two-Legs sat and listened. He liked to hear that sort of thing, the more the better.
 
But, as the evening wore on, the wind grew stronger and shook the tent. The gentle whispering in the leaves sounded less home-like than before. The billows in the did not softly, but made a and sent their splashing right over his feet.
 
“What’s the matter?” asked Two-Legs, who was beginning to feel cold, and wrapped his cloak round him.
 
“Yes, who knows what’s the matter?” whispered the leaves.
 
“Who can tell what’s at the bottom of it?” rippled the spring.
 
“There is more between heaven and earth than Two-Legs knows of,” said the wind.
 
Two-Legs leant back against the tent and looked about him proudly:
 
“Then let it come,” he said. “I have the lion and the horse and the wild ox; so I daresay I can conquer what .”
 
Just as he said this, there came a terrible of wind.
 
It knocked Two-Legs over, till he rolled along the ground and fell into the brook. It tore three great deer-skins from the tent and woke all those who were lying asleep inside. They started up and screamed and did not know what was happening. The dog howled at the top of his voice, with his tail between his legs. Two-Legs crawled out of the brook, dripping wet.
 
The moment he tried to rise to his feet, another gust came ... and another ... and another.
 
Two-Legs crept along the ground on all fours. The whole tent was blown down and the people inside ran and fell over one another and shouted and so that it was horrible to hear.
 
But no one heard it, for each had enough to do to think of saving his own life. The cows and the goats and the sheep lowed and with fright and ran up against one another and on one another. Many of them fell down the slope and broke their legs. The horses off over the meadow and ran till they dropped from far away inland. The big tree above Two-Legs’ tent snapped in two like a stalk of grass.
 
 
3
When day broke, Two-Legs sat and wept at all the destruction which he saw around him. He let the family drive the cattle together and set up the tent again. He himself sat in his cloak and brooded and stared before him. Then he said:
 
“You bad Wind!”
 
And he raised his fist in the direction from which it was still blowing violently.
 
“You destroyed my property last night,” he cried, “and might easily have killed me and mine. Now, we are setting up the tent and collecting the cattle; but you may come back, to-night or to-morrow night, and ruin everything once more.”
 
“So I may,” said the wind.
 
“You bad Wind!”
 
“I am not bad,” said the wind.
 
“Would you have me call you good, after the way you’ve treated me?” asked Two-Legs.
 
“I am not good,” said the wind.
 
“Very well, you are neither bad nor good,” said Two-Legs.
 
“Just so,” said the wind. “You’ve hit it.”
 
“I don’t know,” said Two-Legs. “But can you tell me what use it is for me to the lion and tame the ox and the horse, the camel and the elephant, when a of wind can destroy all that I have done? Can you tell me how I can get you into my service and what I am to use you for?”
 
 
“I can tell you nothing,” said the wind. “Catch me, conquer me, use me!”
 
He across the fields and took with him a great piece of skin that belonged to the old tent, blew it out, lifted it high in the air and carried it far away over the water. Two-Legs sat and watched it until it was out of sight.
 
4
Then the son came:
 
“We can’t stay here any longer,” he said. “The storm has destroyed both the corn and the grass; and our cattle have nothing to eat. It was the same wherever I rode this morning, for miles around. I don’t know what we shall do.”
 
Two-Legs sat and looked out over the water, where the wind had carried the skin away. Far in the distance lay a great land that was ever so green.
 
“There’s good gras............