` You had best call me Snati-Snati , ' said the Dog . ` Now we are coming to a King 's seat , and you must ask the King to keep us all winter , and to give you a little room for both of us . ' The Prince now began to be less afraid of the Dog . They came to the King and asked him to keep them all the winter , to which he agreed . When the King 's men saw the Dog they began to laugh at it , and make as if they would tease it ; but when the Prince saw this he advised them not to do it , or they might have the worst of it . They replied that they did n't care a bit what he thought . After Ring had been with the King for some days the latter began to think there was a great deal in him , and esteemed him more than the others . The King , however , had a counsellor called Red , who became very jealous when he saw how much the King esteemed Ring ; and one day he talked to him , and said he could not understand why he had so good an opinion of this stranger , who had not yet shown himself superior to other men in anything . The King replied that it was only a short time since he had come there . Red then asked him to send them both to cut down wood next morning , and see which of them could do most work . Snati-Snati heard this and told it to Ring , advising him to ask the King for two axes , so that he might have one in reserve if the first one got broken . Next morning the King asked Ring and Red to go and cut down trees for him , and both agreed . Ring got the two axes , and each went his own way ; but when the Prince had got out into the wood Snati took one of the axes and began to hew along with him . In the evening the King came to look over their day 's work , as Red had proposed , and found that Ring 's wood-heap was more than twice as big . ' I suspected , ' said the King , ` that Ring was not quite useless ; never have I seen such a day 's work . ' Ring was now in far greater esteem with the King than before , and Red was all the more discontented . One day he came to the King and said , ` If Ring is such a mighty man , I think you might ask him to kill the wild oxen in the wood here , and flay them the same day , and bring you the horns and the hides in the evening . ' ` Do n't you think that a desperate errand ? ' said the King , ` seeing they are so dangerous , and no one has ever yet ventured to go against them ? ' Red answered that he had only one life to lose , and it would be interesting to see how brave he was ; besides , the King would have good reason to ennoble him if he overcame them .
The King at last allowed himself , though rather unwillingly , to be won over by Red 's persistency , and one day asked Ring to go and kill the oxen that were XXXXX the wood for him , and bring their horns and hides to him in the evening .
After besides if in into since than that to with