"No doubt my wild Horses have settled the business of that Blackbird
once for all. Just go and fetch out his corpse."
The servants went to the wild Horses' stable. There was Blackbird,
sitting on the manger, and drumming away on his walnut-shell; and all
round lay the dead bodies of the Horses, beaten to death.
If the King was angry before, he was furious now. His horses had cost a
great deal of money; and to be tricked by a Blackbird is a poor joke.
"All right," said the King, "I'll make sure work of it to-night. He
shall be put with the Elephants."
When night came the Blackbird was shut up in the Elephants' shed. No
sooner was all the world quiet, than Blackbird began to sing--
"Come from out my ear, you Ants,
Come and sting the Elephants;
Sting their trunk, and sting their head,
Sting them till they fall down dead."
Out came a swarm of Ants from the Blackbird's ear. They crawled up
inside the Elephants' trunks, they burrowed into the Elephants' brains,
and stung them so sharply that the Elephants all went mad, and died.
Next morning, as before, the King sent for the Blackbird's carcass; and,
instead of finding his carcass, the servants found the Blackbird
rub-a-dub-dubbing on his drum, and the dead Elephants piled all round
him.
This time the King was fairly desperate. "I can't think how he does it,"
said he, "but I must find out. Tie him to-night to my bed, and we'll
see."
So that night Blackbird was tied to the King's bed. In the middle of the
night, the King (who had purposely kept awake) heard him sing--
"Come out, River, from my ear,
Flow about the bedroom here;
Pour yourself upon the bed,
Drown the King till he is dead."
Out came the River, pour-pour-pouring out of the Blackbird's ear. It
flooded the room, it floated the King's bed, the King began to get wet.
"In Heaven's name, General Blackbird," said the King, "take your wife,
and begone."
So Blackbird received his wife again, and they
lived happily ever after.
[Illustration]