"I know what you must do," said the hermit almost immediately. "Go to the king and tell him that in order to make the kind of man he requires, you must have very special kinds of ingredients. You will need a special kind of charcoal and you will need a very special kind of water. Ask him to make all his subjects shave their heads and bring their hair to be burnt into charcoal and when you have one thousand loads of such charcoal, then that will be enough. Then tell the king that you must have one hundred pots of water made up from the tears of the king's people, since only such water may be used to keep your fire burning at exactly the right temperature."
     When the madman had said this, he laughed uproariously for some time. The blacksmith tried in vain to thank him for such good advice and then hurried off to the king's palace, in spite of the lateness of the hour.
     He bowed low before the king and explained what he must have before he could begin work on the iron man. The king was quite agreeable. He sent messages to all his subjects the next morning, commanding them all to shave their heads and to deliver their hair to the castle to be burned for charcoal and also to weep into their water-pots.
     The people did their best, wondering why they must follow this strange request, but not daring to disobey their powerful king, everyone shaved their heads and wept as much as they could into their water-pots. But try as they might, it was impossible to collect more than two pots of tears or even one load of charcoal.
     When these results were brought to the king, he sighed.
     "Alas! I can see that we shall never be able to collect all the charcoal and the water that Walukaga needs. Send for him to come here at once."
     With shaking legs Walukaga approached the king. As he looked up, he was relieved to see a smile on the king's face.
     "Walukaga," he said. "You have asked something impossible. I see now that my people can never grow enough hair to produce one thousand loads of charcoal, nor weep enough tears to fill one hundred water-pots. I therefore free you from your task."
     "Your Majesty," replied Walukaga. "I am indeed grateful to you, for you too, asked something impossible of me. I could never have made a living man from iron, try as I would."      Then all the people laughed realized how cleverly Walukaga had gotten out of his fix, and the king allowed him to go home and to continue his work at the blacksmith shop. But Walukaga never forgot that it was his friend's advice which had saved him, and saw to it that the madman never went hungry or thirsty to the end of his days.



More Kids' Art: "The Blacksmith's Dilemma" Art Museum