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THE WISE WAGTAIL
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husband's wives were dead now save herself. Then she said, "By this sign shall ye know that I am no more. If your father kills me my liver will travel until it reaches this house, and ye will hear it rustling in the leaf wall. Guard it carefully, for it will help you when you are in need."

The children wept bitterly at her words, but she bade them dry their tears ere their father should return, lest they should anger him. The next morning, she laid her face against the faces of her children, and bade them farewell, and set out with her husband to the gardens. And there it befell her as had befallen the other women. And also, her liver, even as she had said, went swiftly back to the house. The children sat waiting and fearing inside, and anon heard the low sound as of a lizard in the wall. They searched until they found what their mother had told them of, and laid the liver carefully in a wooden bowl.

Then the boy said to his sister, "Our father will soon be back. It were well for us to fly far away, or he will kill us too."

The little girl rose up and made haste to leave the house, but she carried carefully the bowl in which they had placed the liver. Then they both sped quickly on the path which led to the hills. They had not gone far when their father came home, and sought for them that he might stay his hunger for flesh meat, but he could not find them. Then was he very wroth, and set out along the path to look