If she wanted wood , he would break the branches off the trees and lay them at her feet . And the villagers watched her return laden , and said to each other : ` Surely the girls of her country are stronger than our girls , for none of them could cut so quickly or carry so much ! ' But then , nobody knew that she had a buffalo for a servant . Only , all this time she never gave the poor buffalo anything to eat , because she had just one dish , out of which she and her husband ate ; while in her old home there was a dish put aside expressly for the Rover of the Plain . The buffalo bore it as long as he could ; but , one day , when his mistress bade him go to the lake and fetch water , his knees almost gave way from hunger . He kept silence , however , till the evening , when he said to his mistress : ' I am nearly starved ; I have not touched food since I came here . I can work no more . ' ` Alas ! ' answered she , ` what can I do ? I have only one dish in the house . You will have to steal some beans from the fields . Take a few here and a few there ; but be sure not to take too many from one place , or the owner may notice it . ' Now the buffalo had always lived an honest life , but if his mistress did not feed him , he must get food for himself . So that night , when all the village was asleep , he came out from the wood and ate a few beans here and a few there , as his mistress had bidden him . And when at last his hunger was satisfied , he crept back to his lair . But a buffalo is not a fairy , and the next morning , when the women arrived to work in the fields , they stood still with astonishment , and said to each other : ` Just look at this ; a savage beast has been destroying our crops , and we can see the traces of his feet ! ' And they hurried to their homes to tell their tale . In the evening the girl crept out to the buffalo 's hiding-place , and said to him : ` They perceived what happened , of course ; so to-night you had better seek your supper further off . ' And the buffalo nodded his head and followed her counsel ; but in the morning , when these women also went out to work , the races of hoofs were plainly to be seen , and they hastened to tell their husbands , and begged them to bring their guns , and to watch for the robber . It happened that the stranger girl 's husband was the best marksman in all the village , and he hid himself behind the trunk of a tree and waited .
The buffalo , thinking that they would probably make a search for him in the XXXXX he had laid waste the evening before , returned to the bean patch belonging to his mistress .
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