Page:Tales of the Punjab.pdf/246

reality the crock was full of all sorts of horrible things that the barber's wife had put there on purpose, and so when the thieves crammed its contents into their mouths, you may imagine what faces they made and how they vowed revenge.

But when they returned next day to threaten and repeat their claim to a share of the crop, the barber's wife only laughed at them.

‘Have a care!’ they cried; ‘twice you have fooled us—once by making us dig all night, and next by feeding us on filth and breaking our caste. It will be our turn to-night !’

Then another thief hid himself in the house, but the barber’s wife saw him with half an eye, and when her husband asked, ‘What have you done with the gold, my dear? I hope you haven't put it under the pillow?’ she answered, ‘Don’t be alarmed ; it is out of the house. I have hung it in the branches of the nim tree outside. No one will think of looking for it there!'

The hidden thief chuckled, and when the house- folk were asleep he slipped out and told his com- panions.

‘Sure enough, there it is!’ cried the captain of the band, peering up into the branches. ‘One of you go up and fetch it down.’ Now what he saw was really a hornets’ nest, full of great big brown and yellow hornets.

So one of the thieves climbed up the tree; but when he came close to the nest, and was just reach- ing up to take hold of it, a hornet flew out and stung him on the thigh. He immediately clapped his hand to the spot.