A shepherd had a faithful dog, called Sultan, who was grown very old,and had lost all his teeth. And one day when the shepherd and his wifewere standing together before the house the shepherd said, 'I will shootold Sultan tomorrow morning, for he is of no use now.' But his wifesaid, 'Pray let the poor faithful creature live; he has served us well agreat many years, and we ought to give him a livelihood for the rest ofhis days.' 'But what can we do with him?' said the shepherd, 'he has nota tooth in his head, and the thieves don't care for him at all; tobe sure he has served us, but then he did it to earn his livelihood;tomorrow shall be his last day, depend upon it.'

Poor Sultan, who was lying close by them, heard all that the shepherdand his wife said to one another, and was very much frightened to thinktomorrow would be his last day; so in the evening he went to his goodfriend the wolf, who lived in the wood, and told him all his sorrows,and how his master meant to kill him in the morning. 'Make yourselfeasy,' said the wolf, 'I will give you some good advice. Your master,you know, goes out every morning very early with his wife into thefield; and they take their little child with them, and lay it downbehind the hedge in the shade while they are at work. Now do you liedown close by the child, and pretend to be watching it, and I will comeout of the wood and run away with it; you must run after me as fast asyou can, and I will let it drop; then you may carry it back, and theywill think you have saved their child, and will be so thankful to youthat they will take care of you as long as you live.' The dog liked thisplan very well; and accordingly so it was managed. The wolf ran with thechild a little way; the shepherd and his wife screamed out; but Sultansoon overtook him, and carried the poor little thing back to his masterand mistress. Then the shepherd patted him on the head, and said, 'OldSultan has saved our child from the wolf, and therefore he shall liveand be well taken care of, and have plenty to eat. Wife, go home, andgive him a good dinner, and let him have my old cushion to sleep onas long as he lives.' So from this time forward Sultan had all that hecould wish for.

Soon afterwards the wolf came and wished him joy, and said, 'Now, mygood fellow, you must tell no tales, but turn your head the other waywhen I want to taste one of the old shepherd's fine fat sheep.' 'No,'said the Sultan; 'I will be true to my master.' However, the wolfthought he was in joke, and came one night to get a dainty morsel. ButSultan had told his master what the wolf meant to do; so he laid waitfor him behind the barn door, and when the wolf was busy looking out fora good fat sheep, he had a stout cudgel laid about his back, that combedhis locks for him finely.

Then the wolf was very angry, and called Sultan 'an old rogue,' andswore he would have his revenge. So the next morning the wolf sent theboar to challenge Sultan to come into the wood to fight the matter. NowSultan had nobody he could ask to be his second but the shepherd's oldthree-legged cat; so he took her with him, and as the poor thing limpedalong with some trouble, she stuck up her tail straight in the air.

The wolf and the wild boar were first on the ground; and when theyespied their enemies coming, and saw the cat's long tail standingstraight in the air, they thought she was carrying a sword for Sultan tofight with; and every time she limped, they thought she was picking upa stone to throw at them; so they said they should not like this way offighting, and the boar lay down behind a bush, and the wolf jumpedup into a tree. Sultan and the cat soon came up, and looked about andwondered that no one was there. The boar, however, had not quite hiddenhimself, for his ears stuck out of the bush; and when he shook one ofthem a little, the cat, seeing something move, and thinking it was amouse, sprang upon it, and bit and scratched it, so that the boar jumpedup and grunted, and ran away, roaring out, 'Look up in the tree, theresits the one who is to blame.' So they looked up, and espied the wolfsitting amongst the branches; and they called him a cowardly rascal,and would not suffer him to come down till he was heartily ashamed ofhimself, and had promised to be good friends again with old Sultan.