[Illustration: Alligator and Jackal.]
Once upon a time, a hungry little Jackal went down to the river-side to
catch crabs for his dinner. Now, it chanced that in this river there
lived an ugly old Alligator, who, being very hungry himself, would have
been glad to catch and eat the Jackal. The Jackal ran up and down the
bank, hunting for crabs.
He was so hungry that he did not look about cautiously. Had he done so,
he might have seen that ugly old Alligator, lying half hidden under some
tall bulrushes. So, when the hungry Jackal saw a crab sidling along, he
poked his paw down into the water.
Snap! the old Alligator caught the paw of the Jackal.
“Oh, dear, oh, dear!” cried the little Jackal to himself. “What shall I
do now? This ugly old Alligator has caught my paw, and soon he will drag
me down under the water and eat me.”
But the Jackal sang out in a cheerful voice, “Clever Mr. Alligator!
Clever Mr. Alligator! I hope you will find that hard old bulrush root
tender and you will enjoy chewing on it for dinner.”
The Alligator was so buried in the mud under the bulrushes that he could
hardly see. He thought that he had made a mistake and he said to
himself, “Dear me, how very tiresome! I thought I had caught the
Jackal’s paw when I had only seized a bulrush root. And there is that
saucy little Jackal up on the bank mocking me.” So the Alligator opened
his jaws and let the Jackal go.
“Oh, wise Mr. Alligator! Wise Mr. Alligator! Thank you for letting me
go!” laughed the Jackal. “So you really believed my paw was a root?
Thank you, Mr. Alligator!”
Now, when the Alligator found that he was tricked in this way, he was
very angry, and he went swimming away, lashing the water to a foam with
his tail, while the Jackal hurried up the bank.
The next day the Jackal returned to the river to catch crabs for his
dinner. But this time he was very cautious. So he called out, “Whenever
I go fishing for my dinner, I see the nice little crabs crawling up
through the mud, then I reach down and catch them and eat them. Oh, how
I wish that I could see a nice little crab!”
The old Alligator was buried in the mud at the bottom of the river and
he heard every word, so he popped out the point of his snout, saying to
himself, “That Jackal will take the tip of my nose for a crab and, when
he puts his paw down to catch me, I will gobble him up.”
But, of course, when the Jackal saw the tip of the Alligator’s nose, he
called out, in a saucy voice, “Ha, ha! my friend! So that is where you
are hidden! I am glad to know where you are. Thank you, wise Mr.
Alligator! I will not take my dinner with you today.”
And the little Jackal ran barking up the bank as fast as he could go,
while the old Alligator lashed the water to a foam with his tail.
On the following day the old Alligator hid himself in the bulrushes
close to the bank of the river. He was determined to catch that saucy
Jackal.
When the Jackal was hungry for his dinner, he went again to the river to
catch crabs. This time, he was very cautious; he went peering all
around. He was really much afraid of that old Alligator. However, he
called out in a loud and cheerful voice:
“Where have all the nice little crabs gone today? I do not see one, and
I am so hungry! Even when they are down under the water I can see them
blow bubbles. All the little bubbles go, ‘Pop! pop! pop!’”
When the Alligator heard this, he laughed to himself, “I will pretend to
be a little crab and blow bubbles; but, when that Jackal puts in his
paws, I will catch him and gobble him up!”
So the Alligator began to blow bubbles. “Puff, puff, puff! Bubble,
bubble!” But, of course, the bubbles he blew were very large bubbles.
They rushed to the top of the water and burst there—“POP! POP! POP!”
As soon as the Jackal saw those big bubbles, he ran away as fast as he
could go, calling out, “Thank you, kindly, Mr. Alligator! Thank you! I
am glad to see by the bubbles just where you are hidden in the mud. I
would not have come here had I known that you were still around.”
The Alligator was so angry that he lashed the water to a foam with his
tail. “I will not be tricked again by that saucy Jackal,” he said. “Next
time, I will be as cunning as he is and catch him at his own game.”
The Alligator waited for the Jackal many, many days, but the Jackal did
not return to the river.
“Who knows,” said the Jackal to himself, “but another time that greedy
old Alligator will gobble me up. I will not go fishing for crabs any
more. I will eat wild figs after this.”
So the Jackal stayed in the jungle and ate wild ripe figs for his
dinner.
When the Alligator found out that the Jackal did not come down to the
river for crabs, he was very angry. “I will follow that rascal up on the
land and catch him next time,” he said.
And the Alligator crawled and crawled up on the land, dragging his long
body through the jungle until he came to the largest fig tree. Here he
collected a pile of wild figs and buried himself under them to wait for
the Jackal.
After a while the Jackal came scampering into the jungle. But when the
little rascal saw the huge pile of wild figs on the ground, he said,
“Aha, that looks as though someone was buried under it. Maybe my friend,
the Alligator, is under those figs.”
And so the Jackal called out cheerfully:
“The nice juicy wild figs I like to eat tumble about on the ground as
the wind blows them. This great pile of figs is so still I am sure they
are not good to eat. No! I will not eat those figs.”
“How suspicious the Jackal is, to be sure,” said the Alligator to
himself. “But if he wants to see figs tumble about I can make them, and
when he comes to eat them, I will catch him and gobble him up.” So the
great beast shook himself and all the figs went, rolling right off his
back, farther than any blustering wind could have blown them, and the
Jackal could see the leathery back of the Alligator. So he scampered
away, calling out mockingly:
“So kind of you, Mr. Alligator, to let me know just where you are buried
under that great heap of figs. No! I don’t believe that I want to eat
any figs today.”
The Alligator was so angry that he snapped his jaws and gnashed his
teeth with rage. He ran after the Jackal as fast as he could go but, of
course, a big Alligator cannot crawl very fast on his short legs, and
the Jackal ran so much faster that the Alligator had to give up the
chase. But he said to himself:
[Illustration: The Alligator was so angry that he lashed the water to
a foam with his tail....]
[Illustration: The Alligator was so angry that he lashed the water to
a foam with his tail....]
“I will not allow that tricky little wretch to mock me and run out of my
reach in this way. I will show him that I can be just as cunning as he
is.”
So, early the next morning, the old Alligator crawled as fast as he
could to the Jackal’s den and crept into it and hid himself to wait for
the little Jackal to come home.
When the Jackal came near to his den, he thought, “Dear me! dear me! The
ground is all torn up about here as though some great heavy creature had
been crawling over it, and the earth is knocked down at the side of my
door as though some big animal had been pushing through it. I certainly
will not go into my den until I am sure that everything is safe there.”
Then the little Jackal began to call out in a sweet voice, “Little
house, my pretty little house! Why do you not answer me when I call?
When all is safe and right you always call out to me and welcome me back
home. Is anything wrong today, little house, that you will not speak to
me?”
When the Alligator heard this, he said, “If that is true I’d better call
out, so he will know that all is right in his house.” And, in a very
gentle voice, the Alligator murmured, “Welcome home, sweet little
Jackal! Welcome home!”
Upon hearing this the frightened Jackal thought, “Oh, oh! That dreadful
old Alligator is in my house. Well, I will surely kill him this time, or
he will catch and kill me.”
Then the Jackal answered, very sweetly, “Thank you, my dear little
house! I like to hear your sweet voice! I’m coming right in. But first,
I must collect some fire-wood to cook my dinner.” So the Jackal ran
about as fast as he could and dragged all the branches and dry sticks
close to the mouth of the den.
The old Alligator kept very still, and smiled as he said to himself,
“Aha! At last I will catch that tiresome little Jackal! In a few minutes
he will run in here and then won’t I snap him up?” And the old Alligator
rolled his eyes and smacked his lips and ground his teeth.
Now when the Jackal had piled up all the sticks that he could find, he
pushed them close up to the den and set them on fire. And the smoke and
flames filled the den and smothered the wicked old Alligator and burned
him to a cinder.
The little Jackal danced about the den singing:
“Ring-a-ting-a-ting! How do you like my house, friend Alligator? Is it
nice and warm in my house, friend Alligator? The Alligator will trouble
me no more! Ding-dong, ding-dong! So I dance and sing! Sing-song,
sing-song! My enemy is gone! Ring-a-ting, ting-a-ting, ding, ding,
dong!”
[Illustration: Storks.]