` Oh , but not one too many , ' smiled his wife , coming up with a crowd more children clinging to her skirts . But even she found that it was not so easy to look after a hundred children , and when a few days had passed and they had eaten up all the food there was in the house , they began to cry , ` Father ! I am hungry -- I am hungry , ' till Stan scratched his head and wondered what he was to do next . It was not that he thought there were too many children , for his life had seemed more full of joy since they appeared , but now it came to the point he did not know how he was to feed them . The cow had ceased to give milk , and it was too early for the fruit trees to ripen . ` Do you know , old woman ! ' said he one day to his wife , ' I must go out into the world and try to bring back food somehow , though I can not tell where it is to come from . ' To the hungry man any road is long , and then there was always the thought that he had to satisfy a hundred greedy children as well as himself . Stan wandered , and wandered , and wandered , till he reached to the end of the world , where that which is , is mingled with that which is not , and there he saw , a little way off , a sheepfold , with seven sheep in it . In the shadow of some trees lay the rest of the flock . Stan crept up , hoping that he might manage to decoy some of them away quietly , and drive them home for food for his family , but he soon found this could not be . For at midnight he heard a rushing noise , and through the air flew a dragon , who drove apart a ram , a sheep , and a lamb , and three fine cattle that were lying down close by . And besides these he took the milk of seventy-seven sheep , and carried it home to his old mother , that she might bathe in it and grow young again . And this happened every night . The shepherd bewailed himself in vain : the dragon only laughed , and Stan saw that this was not the place to get food for his family . But though he quite understood that it was almost hopeless to fight against such a powerful monster , yet the thought of the hungry children at home clung to him like a burr , and would not be shaken off , and at last he said to the shepherd , ` What will you give me if I rid you of the dragon ? ' ` One of every three rams , one of every three sheep , one of every three lambs , ' answered the herd . ` It is a bargain , ' replied Stan , though at the moment he did not know how , supposing he DID come off the victor , he would ever be able to drive so large a flock home . However , that matter could be settled later . At present night was not far off , and he must consider how best to fight with the dragon .
Just at midnight , a horrible feeling that was new and strange XXXXX him came over Stan -- a feeling that he could not put into words even to himself , but which almost forced him to give up the battle and take the shortest road home again .
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