Atondido Stories
straight, with eyes which were dark and deep like the river itself,
and hair as dark as the shades in the depths of the river. All his
life he had been surrounded with every luxury, but he had never
seen a single person. He had never seen even the river giant. All
he knew of him was his deep voice which gave orders in the pal-
ace.
One day the voice of the river giant said, “I have to go away
on a long journey. I will leave with you all the keys to all the
doors in the palace, but do not meddle with anything. If you do
you must forfeit your life.”
Many days passed and the lad did not hear the voice of the
river giant. He missed its sound in the palace. It was very still
and very lonely. At last at the end of fifteen days he took one of
the keys which the river giant had left and opened the door
which it fitted. The door led into a room in the palace where the
boy had never been. Inside the room was a huge lion. The lion
was fat and well nourished, but there was nothing for it to eat
except hay. The boy did not meddle with anything and shut the
door.
Another fifteen days passed by, and again the lad took one of
the keys. He opened another door in the palace which he had
never entered. Inside the room he found three horses, one black,
one white, and one chestnut. There was nothing in the room for
the horses to eat except meat, but in spite of it they were fat and
well nourished. The boy did not touch anything and when he
went out he shut the door.
At the end of another fifteen days all alone without even the
voice of the river giant for company, the lad tried another key in
another door. This room opened into a room full of armour.
There were daggers and knives and swords and muskets and all
sorts of armour which the boy had never seen and did not know
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