Page:Tales of the Punjab.pdf/247

THE BARBER’S CLEVER WIFE 225

‘Oh, you thief!’ cried out the rest from below, ‘you're pocketing the gold pieces, are you? Oh! Shabby! shabby !’—-For you see it was very dark, and when the poor man clapped his hand to the place where he had been stung, they thought he was put- ting his hand in his pocket.

‘I assure you I’m not doing anything of the kind!’ retorted the thief; ‘but there is something that bites in this tree !’

Just at that moment another hornet stung him on the breast, and he clapped his hand there.

'Fie! fie for shame! We saw you do it that time!’ cried the rest. ‘Just you stop that at once, or we will make you!’

So they sent up another thief, but he fared no better, for by this time the hornets were thoroughly roused, and they stung the poor man all over, so that he kept clapping his hands here, there, and every- where.

‘Shame! Shabby! Ssh-sh!’ bawled the rest; and then one after another they climbed into the tree, determined to share the booty, and one after another began clapping their hands about their bodies, till it came to the captain’s turn. Then he, intent on having the prize, seized hold of the hornets’ nest, and as the branch on which they were all standing broke at the selfsame moment, they all came tumbling down with the hornets’ nest on top of them. And then, in spite of bumps and bruises, you can imagine what a stampede there was!

After this the barber’s wife had some peace, for every one of the seven thieves was in hospital. In fact, they were laid up for so long a time that she

Q