fall heavily, and the monkey ran in out
of the garden, and standing in the hall of the Queen's palace began to
weep bitterly. Just then the tortoise, passing by, saw his captive.

"What are you crying about?"

"Aita! aita!" cried the monkey, "When I left my home on the earth, I
forgot to bring my liver with me, but hung it upon a tree, and now it is
raining and my liver will decay and I'll die. Aita! aita!" and the poor
monkey's eyes became red as a _tai_ fish, and streamed with tears.

When the tortoise told the Queen's courtiers what the monkey had said,
their faces fell.

"Why, here's a pretty piece of business. The monkey is of no use without
his liver. We must send him after it."

So they dispatched the tortoise to the earth again, the monkey sitting
a-straddle of his back. They came to the mountain again, and the tortoise
being a little lazy, waited at the foot while the monkey scampered off,
saying he would be back in an hour. The two creatures had become so well
acquainted that the old Hard Shell fully trusted the lively little
fellow.

But instead of an hour the tortoise waited till evening. No monkey came.
So finding himself fooled, and knowing all the monkeys would take the
alarm, he waddled back and told the Queen all about it.

"Then," said the Queen after reprimanding her messenger for his silly
confidence, "the monkey must have got wind of our intention to use his
liver, and what is more, some one of my retainers or servants must have
told him."

Then the Queen issued an order commanding all her subjects to appear
before the Dragon-King of the Sea. Whoever did this wicked thing, Kai Riu
O would punish him.

Now it happened that all the fish and sea animals of all sorts, that
swam, crawled, rolled or moved in any way, appeared before Kai Riu O, the
Dragon-King, and his Queen--all except the jelly-fish. Then the Queen
knew the jelly-fish was the guilty one. She ordered the culprit to be
brought into her presence. Then publicly, before all her retainers and
servants, she cried out:

"You leaky-tongued wretch, for your crime of betraying the confidence of
your sovereign, you shall no longer remain among shell-fish. I condemn
you to lose your shell."

Then she stripped off his shell, and left the poor jelly-fish entirely
naked and ashamed.

"Be off, you tell-tale. Hereafter all your children shall be soft and
defenceless."

The poor jelly-fish blushed crimson, squeezed himself out, and swam o