“Time to be off,” said the lazy man, and looked about him for the pretty horse.  No horse was to be found.  The only living thing near was an old, bony, grey donkey.  The man called, and whistled, and looked, but no little horse appeared.  After a long while he gave it up, and, since there was nothing better to do, he mounted the old grey donkey and set out again.

The donkey was slow, and he was hard to ride, but he was better than nothing; and gradually the lazy man saw the towers of the castle draw nearer.

Now it began to grow dark; in the castle windows the lights began to show.  Then came trouble!  Slower, and slower, went the grey donkey; slower, and slower, till, in the very middle of a pitch-black wood, he stopped and stood still.  Not a step would he budge for all the coaxing and scolding and beating his rider could give.  At last the rider kicked him, as well as beat him, and at that the donkey felt that he had had enough.  Up went his hind heels, and down went his head, and over it went the lazy man on to the stony ground.

There he lay groaning for many minutes, for it was not a soft place, I can assure you.  How he wished he were in a soft, warm bed, with his aching bones comfortable in blankets!  The very thought of it made him remember the Castle of Fortune, for he knew there must be fine beds there.  To get to those beds he was even willing to bestir his poor limbs, so he sat up and felt about him for the donkey.

No donkey was to be found.

The lazy man crept round and round the spot where he had fallen, scratched his hands on the stumps, tore his face in the briers, and bumped his knees on the stones.  But no donkey was there.  He would have laid down to sleep again, but he could hear now the howls of hungry wolves in the woods; that it did not sound pleasant.  Finally, his hand struck against something that felt like a saddle.  He grasped it, thankfully, and started to mount his donkey.

The beast he took hold of seemed very small, and, as he mounted, he felt that its sides were moist and slimy.  It gave him a shudder, and he hesitated; but at that moment he heard a distant clock strike.  It was striking eleven!  There was still time to reach the castle of fortune, but no more than enough; so he mounted his new steed and rode on once more.  The animal was easier to sit on than the donkey, and the saddle seemed remarkably high behind; it was good to lean against.  But even the donkey was not so slow as this; the new steed was slower than he.  After a while, however, he pushed his way out of the woods into the open, and there stood the castle, only a little way ahead!  All its windows were ablaze with lights.  A ray from them fell on the lazy man’s beast, and he saw what he was riding:  it was a gigantic snail! a snail as large as a calf!

A cold shudder ran over the lazy man’s body, and he would have got off his horrid animal then and there, but just then the clock struck once more.  It was the first of the long, slow strokes that mark midnight!  The man grew frantic when he heard it.  He drove his heels into the snail’s sides, to make him hurry.  Instantly, the snail drew in his head, curled up in his shell, and left the lazy man sitting in a heap on the ground!