The Talking Beasts_ A Book of Fable Wisdom - Nora Archibald Smith

(Perpustakaan Sri Jauhari) #1

went home.


When it was gone the Hen arose, called a child of hers, and said: "Go
and ask the Cat at what time we shall go to the neighbouring town?"
When the child had already started, she called it back again, saying,
"Come back, I will tell thee something."


The child returned, and when it had come to its mother, she said to it, "When
thou goest to the Cat, open thy ears and hear well what she says, and come and
tell me."


The child went to the Cat, and saluted her, and when the Cat arose and came out
to it, the Hen's child was standing there. The Cat asked the Hen's child, "Why
did thy mother send thee to me?"


The Hen's child said, "My mother said I must come and ask thee how early shall
we go to the neighbouring town?"


The Cat said to the Hen's child, "Go and tell thy mother to arise and come at the
cockcrowing; for what should eat her?"


The Hen's child returned to its mother, and said to her, "Behold I went to the
Cat's place where thou sentest me, and am come back."


The Hen said to her child, "What did the Cat say? Let me hear what word she
spoke?"


Her child answered and said to her, "My mother, the word which the Cat spoke
is this: 'Go and tell thy mother to come to me when the cock crows, that we may
go; for what should eat her?'"


Its mother, the Hen, said to her child, "My child, lie down in your house, for I
have heard what the Cat said."


The child of the Hen obeyed her mother, went and lay down, and also her
mother lay down. They slept their sleep until the cock crew, which when the Cat
heard, she arose, got ready and waited for the Hen, thinking, "May she come that
we may go!" The cock crew the second time, and the Cat looked out on the way
whence the Hen was to come, thinking, "May she come that we may go!"

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