d to make my will." The Tiger granted the request, and the
Elephant went home, bellowing and sobbing every foot of the way.

Now the Elephant's wife heard the sound of her husband's voice, and
said to her children, "What can be the matter with your Father that he
keeps sobbing so?" And the children listened to make sure, and said,
"Yes, it really is Father's voice, the sobbing, and not that of anybody
else." Presently Father Elephant arrived, and Mother Elephant asked:
"What were you sobbing for, Father? What have you done to yourself?"
Father Elephant replied: "I made a wager with Friend Tiger about
shaking down a Monkey, and Friend Tiger beat me; I menaced the Monkey,
but he did not fall; if he had fallen to me, I was to have eaten Friend
Tiger, but if he fell to Friend Tiger, Friend Tiger was to eat me. I
was beaten, and now Friend Tiger says he is going to eat me. So I
begged leave to come home and see you, and he has given me just seven
days' respite."

Now for the seven days Father Elephant kept sobbing aloud, and neither
ate nor slept. And the thing came to the hearing of Friend Mouse-deer.
"What can be the matter with Friend Elephant that he keeps bellowing
and bellowing; neither does he sleep, so that night is turned into day,
and day into night? What on earth is the matter with him? Suppose I
go and see," said the Mouse-deer. Then the Mouse-deer went to see what
was wrong, and asked: "What is the matter with you, Friend Elephant,
that we hear you bellowing and bellowing every single day and every
single night, just now, too, when the Rains are upon us? You are far
too noisy."

But the Elephant said: "It is no mere empty noise, Friend Mouse-deer; I
have got into a dreadful scrape." "What sort of a scrape?" inquired
the Mouse-deer. "I made a wager with Friend Tiger about shaking down a
Monkey, and he beat me." "What was the stake?" asked the Mouse-deer.
"The stake was that Friend Tiger might eat me if Friend Tiger
frightened it down; and if I frightened it down, I might eat Friend
Tiger. It fell to Friend Tiger, and now Friend Tiger wants to eat me.
And my reason for not eating or sleeping any more is that I have got
only just seven days' respite to go home and visit my wife and children
and to make my will." Then the Mouse-deer said: "If it came to Friend
Tiger's eating you, I should feel exceedingly sorrowful, exceedingly
distressed; but things being only as you say, I feel neither." "If you