"Once on a time, there was a man who went into the wood to cut
hop-poles, but he could find no trees so long and straight, and slender,
as he wanted, till he came high up under a great heap of stones. There
he heard groans and moans as though some one were at Death's door. So he
went up to see who it was that needed help, and then he heard that the
noise came from under a great flat stone which lay upon the heap. It was
so heavy it would have taken many a man to lift it. But the man went
down again into the wood and cut down a tree, which he turned into a
lever, and with that he tilted up the stone, and lo! out from under it
crawled a Dragon, and made at the man to swallow him up. But the man
said he had saved the Dragon's life, and it was shameful thanklessness
in him to want to eat him up.
"'May be,' said the Dragon; 'but you might very well know I must be
starved when I have been here hundreds of years and never tasted meat.
Besides, it's the way of the world,--that's how it pays its debts.'
"The man pleaded his cause stoutly, and begged prettily for his life;
and at last they agreed to take the first living thing that came for a
daysman, and if his doom went the other way the man should not lose his
life, but if he said the same as the Dragon, the Dragon should eat the
man.
"The first thing that came was an old hound, who ran along the road down
below under the hillside. Him they spoke to, and begged him to be judge.
"'God knows,' said the hound, 'I have served my master truly ever since
I was a little whelp. I have watched and watched many and many a night
through, while he lay warm asleep on his ear, and I have saved house and
home from fire and thieves more than once; but now I can neither see nor
hear any more, and he wants to shoot me. And so I must run away, and
slink from house to house, and beg for my living till I die of hunger.
No! it's the way of the world,' said the hound; 'that's how it pays its
debts.'
"'Now I am coming to eat you up,' said the Dragon, and tried to swallow
the man again. But the man begged and prayed hard for his life, till
they agreed to take the next comer for a judge; and if he said the same
as the Dragon and the Hound, the Dragon was to eat him, and get a meal
of man's meat; but if he did not say so, the man was to get off with his
life.
"So there came an old horse limping down along the road which ran under
the hill. Him they called out to come and settle the dispute. Yes; he
was quite ready to do that.
"'Now, I have served my master,' said the horse, 'as long as I could
draw or carry. I have slaved and striven for him till the sweat trickled
from every hair, and I have worked till I have grown lame, and halt, and
worn out with toil and age; now I am fit for nothing. I am not worth my
food, and so I am to have a bullet through me, he says. Nay! nay! It's
the way of the world. That's how the world pays its debts.'
"'Well, now I'm coming to eat you,' said the Dragon, who gaped wide, and
wanted to swallow the man. But he begged again hard for his life.
"But the Dragon said he must have a mouthful of man's meat; he was so
hungry, he couldn't bear it any longer.
"'See, yonder comes one who looks as if he was sent to be a judge
between us,' said the man, as he pointed to Reynard the fox, who came
stealing between the stones of the heap.
"'All good things are three,' said the man; 'let me ask him, too, and if
he gives doom like the others, eat me up on the spot.'
"'Very well,' said the Dragon. He, too, had heard that all good things
were three, and so it should be a bargain. So the man talked to the fox
as he had talked to the others.
"'Yes, yes,' said Reynard; 'I see how it all is;' but as he said this he
took the man a little on one side.
"'What will you give me if I free you from the Dragon?' he whispered
into the man's ear.
"'You shall be free to come to my house, and to be lord and master over
my hens and geese, every Thursday night,' said the man.
"'Well, my dear Dragon,' said Reynard, 'this is a very hard nut to
crack. I can't get it into my head how you, who are so big and mighty a
beast, could find room to lie under yon stone.'
"'Can't you,' said the Dragon; 'well, I lay under the hillside, and
sunned myself, and down came a landslip, and hurled the stone over me.'
"'All very likely, I dare say,' said Reynard; 'but still I can't
understand it, and what's more, I won't believe it till I see it.'
"So the man said they had better prove it, and the Dragon crawled down
into the hole again; but in the twinkling of an eye they whipped out the
lever, and down the stone crashed again on the Dragon.
"'Lie now there till Doomsday,' said the fox. 'You would eat the man,
would you, who saved your life?'
"The Dragon groaned, and moaned, and begged hard to come out; but the
two went their way, and left him alone.
"The very first Thursday night Reynard came to be lord and master over
the hen-roost, and hid himself behind a great pile of wood hard by. When
the maid went to feed the fowls, in stole Reynard. She neither saw nor
heard anything of him; but her back was scarce turned before he had
sucked blood enough for a week, and stuffed himself so that he couldn't
stir. So when she came again in the morning, there Reynard lay and
snored, and slept in the morning sun, with all four legs stretched
straight; and he was as sleek and round as a German sausage.
"Away ran the lassie for the goody, and she came, and all the lassies
with her, with sticks and brooms to beat Reynard; and, to tell the
truth, they nearly banged the life out of him; but, just as it was
almost all over with him, and he thought his last hour was come, he
found a hole in the floor, and so he crept out, and limped and hobbled
off to the wood.
"'Oh, oh,' said Reynard; 'how true it is. 'Tis the way of the world; and
this is how it pays its debts.'"