Once upon a time there lived in a village a poor widow¹ who had an only son named Andres. They lived in a small hut situated² near the Patacbo forest. When Andres was between twelve and thirteen years old, his mother died. From now on he lived alone in his mean little hut, where he had to cook his own food and wash his clothes.

 

One morning some boys invited Andres to go to the woods with them to trap. When they got to the forest, his companions set their traps in the places where the wild chickens [333]used to feed. Then they went home. In the afternoon they returned to the woods, where they found that each trap had caught a wild cock³. Now Andres became envious⁴ of his companions: so when he reached home, he took his knife and made two traps of his own. After he had finished them, he ran to the forest and set them. Early the next morning he went to the woods to see if he had caught anything. There he found two wild cocks⁵ snared⁶. He took them home, sold one, and ate the other for his dinner. When he had finished eating, he made many traps, which he set up that afternoon. From now on he made his living by trapping, often catching⁷ as many as fifteen birds in a day. From the money he earned he was able to feed himself and buy clothes.

 

One day, after Andres had been a trapper for many years, he went to the forest, as usual, to see what he had caught. He found that his traps had been moved, and that in one of them was a big monkey caught by the leg. As Andres was about to kill the monkey with a big stick which he picked up, the animal said to him, “My dear Andres, don’t harm me! and I will be your helper by and by.”

 

Andres was much astonished to hear the monkey talk. He was moved to pity, and set the animal free. When he started

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