` You can roam about this field , and this , and this , ' she said , ` for they belong to my husband ; and that is his wood , where you may hide yourself . But the other fields are his mother 's , so beware lest you touch them . ' ' I will beware , ' answered the buffalo ; and , patting his head , the girl left him . Oh , how much better a servant he was than any of the little girls the bride had refused to bring with her ! If she wanted water , she had only to cross the patch of maize behind the hut and seek out the place where the buffalo lay hidden , and put down her pail beside him . Then she would sit at her ease while he went to the lake and brought the bucket back brimming over . If she wanted wood , he would break the branches off the trees and lay them at her feet . And the villagers watched her return laden , and said to each other : ` Surely the girls of her country are stronger than our girls , for none of them could cut so quickly or carry so much ! ' But then , nobody knew that she had a buffalo for a servant . Only , all this time she never gave the poor buffalo anything to eat , because she had just one dish , out of which she and her husband ate ; while in her old home there was a dish put aside expressly for the Rover of the Plain . The buffalo bore it as long as he could ; but , one day , when his mistress bade him go to the lake and fetch water , his knees almost gave way from hunger . He kept silence , however , till the evening , when he said to his mistress : ' I am nearly starved ; I have not touched food since I came here . I can work no more . ' ` Alas ! ' answered she , ` what can I do ? I have only one dish in the house . You will have to steal some beans from the fields . Take a few here and a few there ; but be sure not to take too many from one place , or the owner may notice it . ' Now the buffalo had always lived an honest life , but if his mistress did not feed him , he must get food for himself . So that night , when all the village was asleep , he came out from the wood and ate a few beans here and a few there , as his mistress had bidden him .
And when XXXXX last his hunger was satisfied , he crept back to his lair .
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