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The Hair Tree.
109

Now it chanced that a poor sailor named Rupert saw one of the placards, and stopped to read it. Hewas a strong young man, but he had neither father nor mother, nor sisters nor brothers, and he felt so lonely that he did not care what became of him.

So when he saw the placard and the large reward that was offered to any one who could bring news of the Hair Tree, he began to wonder where it was, and if he could not find it.

“One hundred thousand pounds is a lot of money,” he said to himself. “There is no reason why I should not find it as well as another man. I have a good mind to go and look for it, though it seems rather a wild-goose chase.”

So he packed up his things, and took a little boat, and sailed away towards the north; for it was there, he knew, was a strange country where animals speak like men and women, and plants have hands and eyes; and he thought that there he might find the wonderful Hair Tree.

In the meantime half the young men in the kingdom had started off to search, hoping to win the reward. Some went east, some went west, some north, some south; and they sought in every

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