e and will,
Whoe'er would teach, must gratify it."

AFRICAN FABLES

The Hen and the Cat

A Cat arose in her house, went to a Hen and said to her: "Let us make
friendship!"

The Hen replied to the Cat: "Dost thou like me for a friend?"

The Cat said, "Yes," and went away, and after having been at home for a
while, she sent her child to the Hen, saying, "Go and tell the Hen to
rise up early to-morrow morning, and to come and accompany me to a
neighbouring town."

The child arose, went to the Hen's house and saluted her.

The Hen arose, and asked it: "Thou child of the Cat, dost thou come to
me in peace?"

The Cat's child replied, "I come in peace; my mother has sent me to
thee."

The Hen said to the Cat's child, "Say what thy mother has sent thee
for; let me know."

After the Cat's child had told it to the Hen, it said: "I will go," and
set out and 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