g at the bottom of the pit.

"Don't you know what is going to happen?" said the Mouse-deer. "The sky
is going to fall down, and everybody will be crushed to dust unless he
takes shelter in a pit. If you want to save your life, you had better
jump in."

The Pig jumped into the pit, and the Mouse-deer got on his back, but he
found he was not high enough to enable him to leap out.

Next a Deer came along, and, seeing the two animals in the pit, asked
them what they were doing there.

The Mouse-deer replied: "The sky is going to fall down, and everyone
will be crushed unless he hides in some hole. Jump in, if you want to
save your life."

The Deer sprang in, and the Mouse-deer made him stand on the back of the
Pig; then he himself got on the back of the Deer and jumped out of the
pit, leaving the other two to their fate.

The Deer and the Pig were very angry at being tricked in this way by
such a small animal as the Mouse-deer. They scratched the side of the
pit with their feet until it sloped, and enabled them to scramble out;
then they followed the trail of the Mouse-deer, and soon overtook him.

The Mouse-deer saw them coming, and climbed up a tree from the bough of
which a large beehive was hanging.

"Come down," said the Pig and Deer angrily. "You have deceived us, and
we mean to kill you."

"Deceived you?" said the Mouse-deer in pretended surprise. "When did I
deceive you, or do anything to deserve death?"

"Didn't you tell us that the sky was going to fall, and that if we did
not hide ourselves in a pit we should be killed?"

"Oh, yes," was the reply. "What I said was perfectly true, only I
persuaded the King to postpone the disaster."

"You need not try to put us off with any more lies. You must come down,
for we mean to have your blood."

"I cannot," said the Mouse-deer, "because the King has asked me to watch
his gong," pointing to the bees' nest.

"Is that the King's gong?" said the Deer. "I should like to strike it to
hear what it sounds like."

"So you may," said the Mouse-deer, "only let me get down, and go to some
distance before you do so, as the sound would deafen me."

So the Mouse-deer sprang down and ran away. The Deer took a long stick
and struck the bees' nest, and the bees flew out angrily and stung him
to death.

The Pig, seeing what had happened, pursued the Mouse-deer, determined to
avenge the death of his friend. He found his enemy taking refuge on a
tree round the trunk of w