el was known only to themselves, but everybody was aware of the
fact, and took care to be out of the way when there was any chance
of these two meeting. Often and often the puma had laid traps for the
monkey, which he felt sure his foe could not escape; and the monkey
would pretend that he saw nothing, and rejoice the hidden puma's heart
by seeming to walk straight into the snare, when, lo! a loud laugh would
be heard, and the monkey's grinning face would peer out of a mass of
creepers and disappear before his foe could reach him.

This state of things had gone on for quite a long while, when at last
there came a season such as the oldest parrot in the forest could never
remember. Instead of two or three hundred inches of rain falling, which
they were all accustomed to, month after month passed without a cloud,
and the rivers and springs dried up, till there was only one small pool
left for everyone to drink from. There was not an animal for miles round
that did not grieve over this shocking condition of affairs, not one at
least except the puma. His only thought for years had been how to get
the monkey into his power, and this time he imagined his chance had
really arrived. He would hide himself in a thicket, and when the monkey
came down to drink--and come he must--the puma would spring out and
seize him. Yes, on this occasion there could be no escape!

And no more there would have been if the puma had had greater patience;
but in his excitement he moved a little too soon. The monkey, who was
stooping to drink, heard a rustling, and turning caught the gleam of two
yellow, murderous eyes. With a mighty spring he grasped a creeper which
was hanging above him, and landed himself on the branch of a tree;
feeling the breath of the puma on his feet as the animal bounded from
is cover. Never had the monkey been so near death, and it was some time
before he recovered enough courage to venture on the ground again.

Up there in the shelter of the trees, he began to turn over in his head
plans for escaping the snares of the puma. And at length chance helped
him. Peeping down to the earth, he saw a man coming along the path
carrying on his head a large gourd filled with honey.

He waited till the man was just underneath the tree, then he hung from
a bough, and caught the gourd while the man looked up wondering, for he
was no tree-climber. Then the monkey rubbed the honey all over him, and
a quantity of leaves from a creeper tha