When he handed
his mother the comb that his aunt had given him, she was much
amazed and asked him, 'But how did you manage to get back so
quickly?'
'Ah! mother,' he replied, 'you see I was quite right when I said
I knew a messenger was the profession for me.'
His father too possessed a horse which he often used to take out
into the fields to graze. One day he took the Hazel-nut child
with him. At midday the father turned to his small son and said,
'Stay here and look after the horse. I must go home and give
your mother a message, but I shall be back soon.'
When his father had gone, a robber passed by and saw the horse
grazing without any one watching it, for of course he could not
see the Hazel-nut child hidden in the grass. So he mounted the
horse and rode away. But the Hazel-nut child, who was the most
active little creature, climbed up the horse's tail and began to
bite it on the back, enraging the creature to such an extent that
it paid no attention to the direction the robber tried to make it
go in, but galloped straight home. The father was much
astonished when he saw a stranger riding his horse, but the
Hazel-nut child climbed down quickly and told him all that had
happened, and his father had the robber arrested at once and put
into prison.
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