Once upon a time Mr. Jackal was trotting along gayly, when lie caught
sight of a wild plum tree laden with fruit on the other side of a
broad, deep stream. I could not get across anyhow, so he just sat down
on the bank and looked at the ripe, luscious fruit until his mouth
watered with desire.
Now it so happened that, just then, Miss Crocodile came floating down
stream with her nose in the air.
“Good morning, my dear!” said Mr. Jackal politely; “how beautiful you
look to-day, and how charmingly you swim! Now, if I could only swim
too, what a fine feast of plums we two friends might have over there
together!” And Mr. Jackal laid his paw on his heart, and sighed.
Now Miss Crocodile had a very inflammable heart, and when Mr. Jackal
looked at her so admiringly, and spoke so sentimentally, she simpered
and blushed, saying, “Oh! Mr. Jackal! how can you talk so? I could
never dream of going out to dinner with you, unless—unless—”
“Unless what?” asked the Jackal persuasively.
“Unless we were going to be married!” simpered Miss Crocodile.
“And why shouldn’t we be married, my charmer?” returned the Jackal
eagerly. “I would go and fetch the barber to begin the betrothal at
once, but I am so faint with hunger just at present that I should never
reach the village. Now, if the most adorable of her sex would only take
pity on her slave, and carry me over the stream, I might refresh myself
with those plums, and so gain strength to accomplish the ardent desire
of my heart!”
Here the Jackal sighed so piteously, and cast such sheep’s eyes at Miss
Crocodile, that she was unable to withstand him. So she carried him
across to the plum tree, and then sat on the water’s edge to think over
her wedding dress, while Mr. Jackal feasted on the plums and enjoyed
himself.
“Now for the barber, my beauty!” cried the gay Jackal, when he had
eaten as much as he could. Then the blushing Miss Crocodile carried him
back again, and bade him be quick about his business, like a dear good
creature, for really she felt so flustered at the very idea that she
didn’t know what might happen.
“Now don’t distress yourself, my dear!” quoth the deceitful Mr. Jackal,
springing to the bank, “because it’s not impossible that I may not find
the barber, and then, you know, you may have to wait some time, a
considerable time in fact, before I return. So don’t injure your health
for my sake, if you please.” With that he blew her a kiss, and trotted
away with his tail up.
Of course he never came back, though trusting Miss Crocodile waited
patiently for him; at last she understood what a gay, deceitful fellow
he was, and determined to have her revenge on him one way or another.
So she hid herself in the water, under the roots of a tree, close to a
ford where the Jackal always came to drink. By and by, sure enough, he
came lilting along in a self-satisfied way, and went right into the
water for a good long draft. Whereupon Miss Crocodile seized him by the
right legs and held on. He guessed at once what had happened, and
called out, “Oh! my heart’s adored! I’m drowning! I’m drowning! If you
love me, leave hold of that old root and get a good grip of my leg—it
is just next door!”
Hearing this, Miss Crocodile thought she must have made a mistake, and,
letting go the Jackal’s leg in a hurry, seized an old root close by,
and held on. Whereupon Mr. Jackal jumped nimbly to shore, and ran off
with his tail up, calling out, “Have a little patience, my beauty! The
barber will come some day!”
But this time Miss Crocodile knew better than to wait, and being now
dreadfully angry, she crawled away to the Jackal’s hole, and, slipping
inside, lay quiet.
By and by Mr. Jackal came lilting along with his tail up. “Ho! ho! That
is your game, is it?” said he to himself, when he saw the trail of the
Crocodile in the sandy soil. So he stood outside, and said aloud,
“Bless my stars! What has happened? I don’t half like to go in, for
whenever I come home my wife always calls out,
‘Oh, dearest hubby hub!
What have you brought for grub
to me and the darling cub?’
and to-day she doesn’t say anything!”
Hearing this, Miss Crocodile sang out from inside,
“Oh, dearest hubby hub!
What have you brought for grub
To me and the darling cub?”
The Jackal winked a very big wink, and, stealing in softly, stood at
the doorway. Meanwhile Miss Crocodile, hearing him coming, held her
breath, and lay, shamming dead, like a big log.
“Bless my stars!” cried Mr. Jackal, taking out his pocket handkerchief,
“how very sad! Here’s poor Miss Crocodile stone dead, and all for love
of me! Dear! dear! Yet it is very odd, and I don’t think she can be
quite dead, you know—for dead folks always wag their tails!”
On this, Miss Crocodile began to wag her tail very gently, and Mr.
Jackal ran off, roaring with laughter, and saying. “Oho! oho! so dead
folks always wag their tails!”