companions. He knew the voice, and understood the commands of his mistress, and obeyed her implicitly. "Ruson," she would say to him, "fetch me my spindle;" he would run into her room, and bring it to her immediately, cutting a thousand capers. He frisked about her, he would eat nothing but the herbs she gathered for him, and would rather have died with thirst, than drink anywhere except out of the hollow of her hand. He would shut the door, beat time when she sang, and bleat in tune. Ruson was charming; Ruson was beloved; Constancia talked to him eternally, and lavished on him a thousand caresses.
Notwithstanding all this, a pretty ewe in the neighbourhood was not less agreeable to Ruson than his mistress. Sheep are but sheep, and the meanest ewe was, in Ruson's eyes, more beautiful than the mother of love. Constancia often reproached him for his gallantries. "Little libertine," said she to him, "canst thou not stay with me? Thou art so dear to me that I neglect all my flock for thee, and yet thou wilt not forsake that sorry ewe to please me." She tied him up with a chain of flowers, at which he seemed very much vexed, and pulled and pulled till he broke it. "Ah!" said Constancia, angrily, to him, "The Fairy has often told me that men are wilful as thou art; that they cannot endure the slightest constraint, and are the most refractory creatures in the world. Since thou wouldst be like them, naughty Ruson, Go, find thy beautiful beast of a ewe! If the wolf devour thee, devoured thou must be; I may not be able to help thee."
The amorous ram paid no attention to the advice of Constancia. Having been all day long with his dear ewe, close by the cottage in which the Princess sat alone at her work, she suddenly heard him bleat so loudly and pitifully, that she felt sure some fatal accident had happened to him. She rose in great agitation, looked out, and saw a wolf carrying off poor Ruson. She no longer thought of all the Fairy had said to her at parting. She ran after the robber, crying, "A wolf! A wolf!" She pursued him, flinging stones, and even her crook, at him without making him quit his prey; but alas! in passing near a wood, there came out of it another sort of wolf—a horrible giant! At the sight of this dreadful colossus, the Princess, paralyzed with fright, raised her eyes
