'Are you so sure that I trouble the children of men alone?' said the Scorpion. 'Speak to your brother the Bull, and see what he says.'

'I come on behalf of the children of men, said Leo. 'I have learned to love as they do, and I wish them to live as I—as we do.'

'Your wish was granted long ago. Speak to the Bull. He is under my special care, said the Scorpion.

Leo dropped back to the earth again, and saw the great star Aldebaran, that is set in the forehead of the Bull, blazing very near to the earth, When he came up to it he saw that his brother the Bull, yoked to a countryman's plough, was toiling through a wet ricefield with his head bent down, and the sweat streaming from his flanks, The countryman was urging him forward with a goad.

'Gore that insolent to death,' cried Leo, 'and for the sake of our honour come out of the mire.'

'I cannot,' said the Bull, 'the Scorpion has told me that some day, of which I cannot be sure, he will sting me where my neck is set on my shoulders, and that I shall die bellowing.

'What has that to do with this disgraceful work?' said Leo, standing on the dyke that bounded the wet field.

'Everything. This man could not plough without my help. He thinks that I am a stray beast.'

'But he is a mud-crusted cottar with matted hair,' insisted Leo. ' We are not meant for his use.'

'You may not be; I am. I cannot tell when the Scorpion may choose to sting me to death—perhaps before I have turned this furrow.' The Bull