"but how am I to cross the
water? I can't swim, as you surely know!"

"There is no difficulty about that. I can carry you on my back."

"That will be troubling you too much," said the monkey.

"I can do it quite easily. I am stronger than I look, so you needn't
hesitate," said the jellyfish, and taking the monkey on his back he
stepped into the sea.

"Keep very still, Mr. Monkey," said the jellyfish. "You mustn't fall
into the sea; I am responsible for your safe arrival at the King's
palace."

"Please don't go so fast, or I am sure I shall fall off," said the
monkey.

Thus they went along, the jellyfish skimming through the waves with
the monkey sitting on his back. When they were about halfway, the
jellyfish, who knew very little of anatomy, began to wonder if the
monkey had his liver with him or not!

"Mr. Monkey, tell me, have you such a thing as a liver with you?"

The monkey was very much surprised at this queer question, and asked
what the jellyfish wanted with a liver.

"That is the most important thing of all," said the stupid jellyfish,
"so as soon as I recollected it, I asked you if you had yours with
you?"

"Why is my liver so important to you?" asked the monkey.

"Oh! you will learn the reason later," said the jellyfish.

The monkey grew more and more curious and suspicious, and urged the
jellyfish to tell him for what his liver was wanted, and ended up by
appealing to his hearer's feelings by saying that he was very troubled
at what he had been told.

Then the jellyfish, seeing how anxious the monkey looked, was sorry
for him, and told everything. How the Dragon Queen had fallen ill,
and how the doctor had said that only the liver of a live monkey would
cure her, and how the Dragon King had sent him to find one.

"Now I have done as I was told, and as soon as we arrive at the palace
the doctor will want your liver, so I feel sorry for you!" said the
silly jellyfish.

The poor monkey was horrified when he learnt all this, and very angry
at the trick played upon him. He trembled with fear at the thought of
what was in store for him.

But the monkey was a clever animal, and he thought it the wisest plan
not to show any sign of the fear he felt, so he tried to calm himself
and to think of some way by which he might escape.

"The doctor means to cut me open and then take my liver out! Why I
shall die!" thought the monkey. At last a bright thought struck him,
so he said quite cheerfully to