` You poor stork ! how can you repay me ? ' asked the prince . ` You have forgotten , ' answered the stork , ` the proverb that runs , `` mountain and mountain can never meet , but one living creature can always come across another . '' ' The boy laughed at hearing these words again , and walked slowly on . He had not gone far , when he fell in with two discharged soldiers . ` Where are you going , little brother ? ' asked one . ' I am seeking work , ' answered the prince . ` So are we , ' replied the soldier . ` We can all go together . ' The boy was glad of company and they went on , and on , and on , through seven kingdoms , without finding anything they were able to do . At length they reached a palace , and there was the king standing on the steps . ` You seem to be looking for something , ' said he . ` It is work we want , ' they all answered . So the king told the soldiers that they might become his coachmen ; but he made the boy his companion , and gave him rooms near his own . The soldiers were dreadfully angry when they heard this , for of course they did not know that the boy was really a prince ; and they soon began to lay their heads together to plot his ruin . Then they went to the king . ` Your Majesty , ' they said , ` we think it our duty to tell you that your new companion has boasted to us that if he were only your steward he would not lose a single grain of corn out of the storehouses . Now , if your Majesty would give orders that a sack of wheat should be mixed with one of barley , and would send for the youth , and command him to separate the grains one from another , in two hours ' time , you would soon see what his talk was worth . '
The king , who was weak , listened to what these wicked men had told him , and desired the prince to have the contents of the sack piled into two heaps by the time XXXXX he returned from his council .
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