[Illustration]
"Little boy! Little boy! There's a fish biting at your night-line!"
Up jumped the boy, and out he ran, to look at the night-line. But as he
was stooping down and looking at the line to see if any fish were
hooked, the Wolf pounced upon him, and bit him in the throat, and he
died.
Then the cruel boy's mother went out to get some peats, and as she put
her hand in amongst them, the Snake bit her, and she gave a shriek and
fell down and died. The shriek awoke her husband sleeping in his chair,
and he began to get up, but by this time the Scorpion had climbed up the
leg of the chair, so he stung the man, and the man died too.
Thus there was an end of the cruel boy who killed
a harmless Sparrow for sport; and though his father
and mother had done nothing, yet they ought not to
have had a son so cruel, or, at least, they might have
brought him up better. Anyhow, die they did, all three;
and Mrs. Hen Sparrow was so delighted that she
forgot all about her dead husband, and forgot
her eggs which were getting addled,
and went about chirruping until
she found another husband,
and made another nest,
and (I am sorry to
say) lived happily
ever after.