Page:The Red Fairy Book.djvu/281

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THE ENCHANTED CANARY
259

ways except the right one, and instead of bringing him back they returned themselves when it grew dark, with their horses worn out and covered with dust.

III

When Désiré thought they could no longer catch him, he pulled his horse into a walk, like a prudent man who knows he has far to

go. He travelled in this way for many weeks, passing by villages, towns, mountains, valleys, and plains, but always pushing south, where every day the sun seemed hotter and more brilliant.

At last one day at sunset Désiré felt the sun so warm, that he thought he must now be near the place of his dream. He was at that moment close to the corner of a wood where stood a little hut, before the door of which his horse stopped of his own accord. An