such a nice nap.'

'Have you got it?' asked the shark. 'It is time we were going.'

'Going _where_?' inquired the monkey.

'Why, to my country, of course, with your heart. You _can't_ have
forgotten!'

'My dear friend,' answered the monkey, with a chuckle, 'I think you must
be going a little mad. Do you take me for a washerman's donkey?'

'Don't talk nonsense,' exclaimed the shark, who did not like being
laughed at. 'What do you mean about a washerman's donkey? And I wish you
would be quick, or we may be too late to save the sultan.'

'Did you _really_ never hear of the washerman's donkey?' asked the
monkey, who was enjoying himself immensely. 'Why, he is the beast who
has no heart. And as I am not feeling very well, and am afraid to start
while the sun is so high lest I should get a sunstroke, if you like, I
will come a little nearer and tell you his story.'

'Very well,' said the shark sulkily, 'if you won't come, I suppose I may
as well listen to that as do nothing.'

So the monkey began.

'A washerman once lived in the great forest on the other side of the
town, and he had a donkey to keep him company and to carry him wherever
he wanted to go. For a time they got on very well, but by and bye the
donkey grew lazy and ungrateful for her master's kindness, and ran away
several miles into the heart of the forest, where she did nothing but
eat and eat and eat, till she grew so fat she could hardly move.

'One day as she was tasting quite a new kind of grass and wondering if
it was as good as what she had had for dinner the day before, a hare
happened to pass by.

'"Well, that _is_ a fat creature," thought she, and turned out of her
path to tell the news to a lion who was a friend of hers. Now the lion
had been very ill, and was not strong enough to go hunting for himself,
and when the hare came and told him that a very fat donkey was to be
found only a few hundred yards off, tears of disappointment and weakness
filled his eyes.

'"What is the good of telling me that?" he asked, in a weepy voice; "you
know I cannot even walk as far as that palm."

'"Never mind," answered the hare briskly. "If you can't go to your
dinner your dinner shall come to you," and nodding a farewell to the
lion she went back to the donkey.

'"Good morning," said she, bowing politely to the donkey, who lifted her
head in surprise. "Excuse my interrupting you, but I have come on very
important business."

'"Indeed," answered the d