h, please do! come and get in," said the Sparrow.

In got the Scorpion, and away they went. By-and-by they saw a Snake.

"Good day, and God bless you," says the Snake. "Where are you going, may
a mere reptile ask?"

"Mr. Scorpion and I are going to punish a cruel boy who threw a stone
and killed my husband."

"Shall I come and help you?" asked the Snake. "I have fine teeth in my
head to bite with."

"The more the merrier," replied Mrs. Sparrow. So in he got. They had not
gone far before who should meet them but a Wolf.

"Hullo," says the Wolf gruffly; "where are you off to, I should like to
know?"

"Mr. Rat is kind enough to draw me in my carriage, and we are all going
to punish a cruel boy who threw a stone and killed my poor husband."

"May I come too?" growled the Wolf. "I can bite." He opened his big jaws
and snarled.

"Oh, how kind you are!" said Mrs. Sparrow. "Do come! jump in, jump in!"

The poor Rat looked aghast at such a load to pull; but he was a
gentlemanly Rat, and so, having offered to pull the carriage, he said
nothing.

So the big Wolf got in, and nearly sat on the Scorpion's tail; if he
had, he wouldn't have sat long, I think. However, the Scorpion got out
of the way, and on they went all four, the poor Rat pulling with all his
might, but rather slow at that.

In due time they arrived at the cruel boy's house. His mother was
cooking the dinner, and his father was fast asleep in a chair. There was
a river close by the house, and the Wolf went down to the river, and
hid himself there; the Snake crawled among the peats, and the Scorpion
began to climb up into the chair where the man was sleeping.

Then Mrs. Hen Sparrow flew in at the door and twittered--

[Illustration]

"Little boy! Little boy! There's a fish biting at your night-line!"

Up jumped the boy, and out he ran, to look at the night-line. But as he
was stooping down and looking at the line to see if any fish were
hooked, the Wolf pounced upon him, and bit him in the throat, and he
died.

Then the cruel boy's mother went out to get some peats, and as she put
her hand in amongst them, the Snake bit her, and she gave a shriek and
fell down and died. The shriek awoke her husband sleeping in his chair,
and he began to get up, but by this time the Scorpion had climbed up the
leg of the chair, so he stung the man, and the man died too.

Thus there was an end of the cruel boy who killed
a harmless Sparrow for s