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PAPUAN FAIRY TALES

Now, when they had come, the old man cared no longer to deceive them, and his voice was loud and harsh as he said, "Give me the basket." Then he chose out what he wanted for himself, and threw the rest away, nor did the children so much as eat a single grasshopper. And he bade them work for him, and took them to his taro patch on the hill, and caused their toil to be heavy.

Thus did they day by day, and it came to pass that on the seventh day the elder girl made a plan to escape, and told her little sister what she was about to do. Then in the softness of the day, when the sun was no longer high in the heaven, she went near to the old man as he worked in the garden, and said, "Thou art tired and hungry, O master. Bid me to go with my sister to the house that we may cook thy food."

Then did he bid her do as she had said, and the two girls made haste, and came to the house and cooked much of the food they had brought from the garden, but the rest they laid in a basket, meaning to take it with them for their journey tood. For so had the girl planned. And if the old man returned not from the garden before the food was cooked, then might they eat and flee from him. Therefore they made no delay, but when the food was now cooked they ate of it, and placed the rest in a basket. And the two baskets, with food cooked and green, they hung by strings from their heads, and began to run along the beach.