The Red Romance Book, page 9 by Various Authors
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e set up a loud barking, as if he had found a prey, and the noise caused the old man to hasten his steps.
When he reached the spot from which the noise came, the dog was standing at the edge of a pit, out of which came a frightened cry. The old man looked in, and there he saw a child clad in garments that shone like gold, shrinking timidly into the farthest corner.
'Fear nothing, my boy,' said the cowherd; 'he will never hurt you, and even if he wished I would not let him;' and as he spoke he held out his hand. At this William took courage. He was not really a coward, but he felt lonely and it seemed a long time since the wolf had gone away. Would he really ever come back? This old man looked kind, and there could be no harm in speaking to him. So he took the outstretched hand and scrambled out of the pit, and the cowherd gathered apples for him, and other fruits that grew on the tops of trees too high for the wolf to reach. And all the day they wandered on and on, till they came to the cowherd's cottage, before which an old woman was standing.
'I have brought you a little boy,' he said, 'whom I found in the forest.'
'Ah, a lucky star was shining when you got up to-day,' answered she. 'And what is your name, my little man? And will you stay and live with me?'
'My name is William, and you look kind like my grandmother, and I will stay with you,' said the boy; and the old people were very glad, and they milked a cow, and gave him warm milk for his supper.
When the wolf returned--he was not a wolf at all, but the son of the king of Spain, who had been enchanted by his stepmother--he was very unhappy at finding the pit empty. Indeed, his first thought was that a lion must have carried off the boy and eaten him, or that an eagle must have pounced on him from the sky, and borne him away to his young ones for supper. But after he had cried till he could cry no more, it occurred to him that before he gave up the boy for dead it would be well to make a search, as perchanc