He fared no better than the second one,
as he met the old witch who served him in a similar manner as she
had his two brothers.
"Ha! Ha!" she laughed, when she caught the third, "I have only one
more of them to catch, and when I get them I will keep them all
here a year, and then I will turn them into horses and sell them
back to their sister. I hate her, for I was going to
try and keep house for them and marry the oldest one, but she got
ahead of me and became their sister, so now I will get my revenge
on her. Next year she will be riding and driving her brothers and
she won't know it."
When the third brother failed to return, the sister cried and
begged the last one not to venture out in search of them. But go
he must, and go he did, only to do as his three brothers had done.
Now the poor sister was nearly distracted. Day and night she
wandered over hills and through woods in hopes she might find or
hear of some trace of them. Her wanderings were in vain. The
hawks had not seen them after they had crossed the little stream.
The wolves and coyotes told her that they had seen nothing of her
brothers out on the broad plains, and she had given them up for
dead.
One day, as she was sitting by the little stream that flowed past
their hut, throwing pebbles into the water and wondering what she
should do, she picked up a pure white pebble, smooth and round, and
after looking at it for a long time, threw it into the water.
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