’The next day she gave him a hatchet that was as blunt as a blunt knife; and she told him there was a forest he should cut down before night, or she would make an end of him.  So he went to the forest and began to cut; but as he cut, it grew thicker and thicker, and the trees that were saplings in the morning were large trees before afternoon.  So when he saw there was no use going on, he stopped.  And then he saw the young girl again, and she said:  “I am come to help you.”  And she took out a small hatchet, and began to cut, and before long the whole forest was levelled down.

’He went back to the house whistling and singing; and he told the witch he had cut down the forest, and she asked did Lanka Pera help him.  But he said she did not—­for she had told him not to let on he had seen her at all.

’The third day the witch showed him a hill a good way off, and a wild horse on it; and she said what he had to do was to catch the horse, and if he did not do that, it was his last day to live.

’So he began hunting the horse, and trying to catch it; but he could never get near it at all.  Then the girl came to him, and she said:  “You will never be able to catch it without my help.  And I will turn myself into a mare,” she said; “and you can get on my back.  But remember,” she said, “not to put the spurs into me whatever may happen.”  She turned herself into a mare then, and he got on her back.  And the old witch came out then and she called to Stepney:  “Don’t spare the spurs.”

’They galloped off then after the wild horse, but they never could come up with it.  And at last, in the heat of the race, Stepney forgot what the girl had said, and he pressed the spurs into the side of the mare till the blood came down.’

(’Oh murder!’ and a groan of pity from all the old men.)

’Then the mare fell, and the mare was gone; and it was the girl he saw before him, and her sides bleeding.  And it is then he knew she was the young girl had been stolen from him at his own place after he shutting her up in the bull.

’She went then and called to the wild horse, and he came to her; and they both of them got up on him, and they went back to the witch’s house.  And when they got near it, the girl got up and turned herself into a mare again.  And the witch came out to meet them, and she said:  “I see you didn’t spare the spur.”

’And the witch said Stepney might have the girl if he could choose her out of thirteen.  And he did that.  And the witch wanted to keep her from him yet, but he wouldn’t give her up; and he brought her to a house that was close by; and they made a plan to escape in the night; and they made the two horses ready to bring them away.  And the girl made two cakes; and she left them with some of the servants, and she said:  “The witch will be coming in to watch us for the night, and she will ask for a story; and stick a knife into one of the cakes when she asks that,” she said.