HURLY-BURLY 13

appeared to have nothing to do with the sad
state of his brothers and sisters, and he was,
therefore, upon the point of asking how his
destruction of the three creatures alluded to
would help him to alter that state, when the
crow cleared his throat and went on again,
and these were the words he cawed out as
clearly as possible :

‘Cunning the rabbit and crafty the fox,

Craftier still is the hedgehog old ;
His is the tongue which the secret unlocks—
Pay him with milk, for he won't take gold.’

The boy distened with much attention to
these words, but, after all, they did not seem
to bring him much nearer to the cure of his
brothers and sisters. He saw no hedgehog,
and had no milk to give, if there had been
half a dozen of these animals close at hand.
So he kept his eyes fixed upon the crow,
expecting to hear something more, and was
very much vexed as well as surprised when
the bird, after one more caw, flapped his
wings three times and then flew slowly away,
without uttering another word. Little Hurly-
Burly looked to his nurse, but she only shook
her head and told him she did not know what
to do any more than he did. His poor little