1.Once upon a time there was a king who was very fond of hearing stories told.He spent all his time in listening to stories,and yet he never had enough;the more he heard the more he wanted to hear.
2.At last he sent a notice through his whole king-dom,that if any man would tell him a story that should last for ever and not come to an end,he would make him his heir,and would give him the princess his daughter in marriage;but if any man tried and failed,he was to lose his head.
3.Many story-tellers came forward to compete for the splendid prize that was offered,and very long stories they told.Some of them lasted a week,some a month,some six months;but sooner or later the end of the story came,and then came the end of the story-teller also.
4.At last there came a man who said he had a story to tell which would last for ever.He was told the fate of the other competitors,but he showed no fear.He was brought to the king,and they agreed on the time that he was to spend each day in telling his story.Then he began thus:-5."Once upon a time there was a king who was very fond of riches,and who was also very cruel.He had a large store-house built as high as a mountain,and he forced his people to bring part of their wheat and put it into his store-house.Then when it was quite full he had the doors and windows built up so that no one could get in.
6."But one very small hole had been left near the top of the house.There came a swarm of locusts,and they tried to get in to the corn;but the hole was so small that only one locust could get in at a time.So one locust went in,and carried off one grain of corn;and then another locust went in,and carried off another grain of corn;and then another locust went in,and carried off another grain of corn;and then another locust went in,and carried off an other grain of corn-"7.He went on in this way day after day,when after a week the king said to him,"Well,that will do for the locusts;tell us now what happened afterwards."But the story-teller replied,"I cannot tell your majesty what happened afterwards until I have told you what happened first."And so he went on again:"And then another locust went in,and carried off another grain of corn;and then another locust went in,and carried off another grain of corn-"
8.For six months this went on day after day,when the king said,"I am weary of those locusts of yours;how soon do you think they will have finished?"
The story-teller replied,"O king,who can tell?At the time I am speaking of they had cleared away a little space round the hole within,and the air was still dark with locusts without.But have patience,and we shall no doubt come to the end in time."
9.For a year longer the king sat and heard the story go on day after day-"And then another locust went in,and carried off another grain of corn;and then another ,locust went in,and carried off another grain of corn."But he could stand it no longer,and cried aloud,"Stop,man;that is enough.Take my daughter,take my kingdom,take anything you like,but let us hear no more of that swarm of locusts of yours."
10.And so we are told that this story-teller gained the prize:he married the king's daughter,and became his heir.His story never came to an end;for when anybody asked to hear the end of it,he said he could not go on with the rest of the tale until he had finished with the locusts.