"But if he fails, he shall lose
his head."
"Very well, then," said the stran-ger. "I have a pleasant story about
locusts which I would like to relate."
"Tell it," said the king. "I will listen to you."
The story-teller began his tale.
"Once upon a time a certain king seized upon all the corn in his
country, and stored it away in a strong gran-a-ry. But a swarm of
locusts came over the land and saw where the grain had been put. After
search-ing for many days they found on the east side of the gran-a-ry
a crev-ice that was just large enough for one locust to pass through
at a time. So one locust went in and carried away a grain of corn;
then another locust went in and carried away a grain of corn; then
another locust went in and carried away a grain of corn."
Day after day, week after week, the man kept on saying, "Then another
locust went in and carried away a grain of corn."
A month passed; a year passed. At the end of two years, the king
said,--
"How much longer will the locusts be going in and carrying away corn?"
"O king!" said the story-teller, "they have as yet cleared only one
cubit; and there are many thousand cubits in the granary."
"Man, man!" cried the king, "you will drive me mad.
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