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196 TALES OF THE PUNJAB

shot into tender green stems, but the bones made never a sign.

‘ Bones do take a long time germinating,' remarked the Jackal, pretending to be quite at his ease ; ‘1 have known them remain unchanged in the ground far months.’

‘My dear sir, answered the Pea-hen, with illconcealed irony,‘I have known them remain so for years!'

So time passed on, and every day, when they visited the garden, the self-complacent Pea-hen became more and more sarcastic, the Jackal more and more savage.

At last the plum-trees blossomed and bore fruit, and the Pea-hen sat down to a perfect feast of ripe juicy plums.

‘He! he!’ sniggered she to the Jackal, who, having been unsuccessful in hunting that day, stood by dinnerless, hungry, and in consequence very cross; ‘what a time those old bones of yours do take in coming up! But when they do, my! what a crop you'll have !’

The Jackal was bursting with rage, but she wouldn’t take warning, and went on: ‘Poor dear! you do look hungry! There seems some chance of your starving before harvest. What a pity it is you can’t eat plums in the meantime!’

‘If I can’t eat plums, I can eat the plum-eater!’ quoth the Jackal; and with that he pounced on the Pea-hen, and gobbled her up.

Moral—It is never safe to be wiser than one’s friends.

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