orange fairy book

Chapter 5 The Adventures of the Jackal

There was a place where there were all kinds of wild beasts. Among them was a jackal and a hedgehog. Although they didn't look alike at all, they were very good friends and were always inseparable.

One afternoon, as they were walking together on the road, the taller jackal said loudly:

"Oh! look, there's a barn full of corn, let's go and eat some."

"Okay, let's go!" replied the hedgehog.So they went into that barn, and there they ate until they were too full to eat.Before entering the barn, the Jackal took off his shoes so as not to walk loudly, but now that he was full he put them on and went back to the road with the Hedgehog.

After they had walked for a while, they met a leopard. The leopard stopped, bowed politely, and said to the jackal:

"Sorry, excuse me, I really like your shoes, would you mind telling me who made them?"

"Well, I think the shoes are pretty, too," said the Jackal. "I made them myself."

The leopard asked eagerly, "Then can you still help me make a pair?"

"Of course I would," replied the Jackal cunningly, "but first you must kill me a cow, and when we have eaten the beef, I will make you shoes out of its hide."

So the leopard searched everywhere, and finally saw a fat cow grazing alone in one place. He immediately ran over and killed the cow, and let the jackal and hedgehog come over with a loud roar.They quickly skinned the cow and left it open to dry before feasting on a sumptuous feast of beef.At night, they curl up and sleep contentedly.

The next day, the jackal got up early in the morning to make shoes, and the leopard sat beside him and watched happily. When the shoes were finally finished, the jackal stood up and stretched.

"Now, take your shoes to dry in the sun over there," he said, "and you'll be able to put them on in two or three hours. Remember, it must be two or three hours before you wear them, or you'll be uncomfortable wearing them." .Now that the sun is in the sky, I think we must go on."

The leopard always believed what other people said, so he put on the shoes after two hours as the jackal told him.But when he tried to walk—ah!That's another story!The shoes were hard and hurt his feet. He almost screamed every time he took a step. Finally, he lay down on the spot and wanted to take off the shoes, but the shoes were so tight that he couldn’t take them off. He was so anxious cry.

After a while, some young quails wandering about heard his groans and cries, and came to see what was going on, for the leopards never ate them, so they were always friendly among themselves.

"You seem to be in pain," said a quail, flapping its wings and approaching him. "Can we help you?"

"Oh, it's the jackal! He made me these shoes, and they're so hard and tight that they hurt my feet, and I can't get them off."

"Lie still, let's soften the shoes." The kind little quail called to his companions, and together they flew to the nearest spring, took some water in their beaks, and poured it on the shoes.They kept going back and forth like this until the hard leather softened, and the leopard was finally able to take off the shoes.

"Oh, thank you, thank you," he said loudly, jumping up and down with joy, "I feel like a different person. Now, I'm going to go after that jackal." In the woods.

But the jackal was very cunning. He ran from side to side, into the woods and out of the woods, so that it was difficult to trace him.At last, the leopard finally saw his enemy, and at the same time the jackal also saw the leopard. The leopard roared and rushed towards the wolf, but the wolf ran too fast and jumped into the dense bushes, and the leopard couldn't catch it. hold him.

The leopard was frustrated when he failed to catch the jackal, and the more he thought about it, the more angry he became.He lay on the ground for a while, thinking about what to do next, when an old man passed him.

"Oh! Old man, I want to ask you a question." The leopard first told what happened to him, and then asked, "Can you tell me how to find that jackal for revenge?"

"My suggestion," said the old man, "is that you kill a cow and invite all the wolves in the forest to eat it, and watch them carefully as they eat, and you will find that most of the wolves' eyes are The cow, once you find a jackal peeping at you from time to time, then it is the enemy you are looking for."

Leopard thanked the old man politely and accepted his suggestion.He killed an ox and let the little quails fly around to invite the wolves, so many wolves came to enjoy the feast of beef, and the wicked jackal was among them. recognize him.The cow was placed on a fallen tree trunk, and there were many wooden benches beside it, and all the jackals sat around the cow and began to enjoy their beef feast.Every jackal stared greedily at the beef in front of him while eating, only one jackal seemed restless, his eyes glanced at the direction of the leopard from time to time, the leopard noticed his abnormality, and suddenly pounced on him. The bad guy, grabbed his tail.However, the jackal's reaction was very fast. He quickly picked up the knife and cut off his own tail. He quickly ran into the forest and escaped again, and all the other jackals followed him. The leopard had not had time to recover from its surprise. When God comes, there is only Himself left there.

Not long after, the old man came back to see if the leopard had his revenge.The leopard recounted the experience of previous failures in frustration, and then asked the old man: "What should I do now?"

"You are indeed out of luck," replied the old man, "but I know where you can find him. There is a melon patch about two miles from here, and as the jackals are very fond of melons, it is probable that they have been there Go, if you see a jackal without a tail there, you will know that he is the one you are looking for." So the leopard thanked the old man and ran to the melon garden.

The jackal had guessed that tail breaking would easily reveal his identity, so when the other wolves were gathering around the sunniest corner of the melon garden and devouring ripe melons, he sneaked up behind them and took their melons. The tail is tied together.As soon as he fastened it, he heard the "click" sound of the branches being broken. He knew it was a leopard, so he deliberately shouted: "Run! Run! The owner of the melon garden is here!" The jackals jumped in fright. He got up and fled around, pulling off his tail.Now, how can the leopard know which jackal is his enemy?

"They don't have tails," Leopard said sadly when he met the old man again. "It's so boring to chase after him in vain. I'm going to leave him alone and go find my dinner. "

The jackal also felt exhausted physically and mentally after all these troubles. He decided to go to his good friend hedgehog, and the jackal found him in the hedgehog's house.

"Ah, you are at home," the jackal said happily, "I have lost my tail since the last time I separated from you, and the tails of the other jackals have also lost their tails, but it doesn't matter! Only, I am very hungry, come with me over there Go to the shepherd and let him sell us a sheep."

"Okay, that's a good plan." The hedgehog walked quickly on his short legs and followed the jackal.When he arrived at the shepherd, the jackal told the shepherd that he wanted to buy a sheep, and took out his wallet to bargain with the shepherd.

"I can't give you the fattest and biggest sheep until tomorrow," said the Shepherd, "because it always grazes a little far from the flock, and it will take me a long time to catch him."

"Well, it's annoying to have to wait until tomorrow, but for the sake of that big fat sheep, I think it's necessary to wait." After the jackal replied, they left with the hedgehog. They looked around for a dry and comfortable cave. Going to sleep comfortably in it all night.But when they were gone, the shepherd killed a sheep, skinned it, and sewed the skin tightly on to his hound, and put a rope around the hound's neck.

Very early the next day, when the sun had just risen, the jackal and the hedgehog couldn't wait to come to the shepherd.They tugged at the shepherd's cloak. "Wake up," they said, "give us the sheep. We haven't eaten all night, and we are dying of hunger."

The shepherd yawned, rubbed his eyes and said, "The sheep are tied under that tree, go get it." They came to the tree, loosened the rope tied to the trunk, and led the sheep to the tree. The hound in sheep's clothing, back to the cave where they slept last night.When they got to the cave, the jackal said to the hedgehog:

"Before I kill it, I want to see if it's fat." So he stepped back and stood so that he could see better. He tilted his head and looked at it for a minute or two, then nodded vigorously.

"He's really fat. A good sheep."

However, you may not imagine that hedgehogs are sometimes very shrewd, he said:

"My friend, you are talking nonsense. This wool is indeed wool, but there are hound's claws sticking out from under the wool."

"It's just a sheep," said the Jackal again, because he didn't want to admit that other people were smarter than he was.

The hedgehog replied, "Pick up the rope and let me see it."

The jackal reluctantly lifted the rope, and the hedgehog walked slowly around the hunting dog in sheep's clothing, and finally walked up to the jackal again.He had seen it clearly from its paws and tail—the shepherd had sold them a hunting dog instead of a sheep, but he couldn't figure out what was going on, and he didn't want to waste time arguing with the jackal, so he decided Avoid yourself.

"Oh! you are right, it is indeed a sheep," he said to the jackal, "but I must drink water before I eat my breakfast, so I will go to the woods and drink from a spring to quench my thirst, so that I can eat breakfast."

So the hedgehog ran away as fast as he could, while the jackal was still lying on a big rock waiting for him to come back.

More than an hour passed, which was enough time for the hedgehog to go to the woods to drink enough spring water and come back, but there was no sign of him.No surprise, since the hedgehog was already hiding in some tall grass under the tree!

At last the Jackal, guessing that his friend might not be coming back for some reason, decided not to wait for him for breakfast.So he walked up to the "sheep" and untied the rope. Just as he was about to jump over and bite the "sheep" to death, he heard a deep growl, which could not have come from a sheep's throat. sent out.Realizing the danger, the jackal threw down the rope as quickly as lightning and fled away. Although his legs were very long, the hounds had even longer legs, so the hounds quickly caught up with him.The jackal turned around and started fighting with the hunting dog, but he was no match for the hunting dog at all. After a few minutes, the jackal fell to the ground and died, while the hunting dog quickly recovered his calm and trotted back to the side of the shepherd.

(End of this chapter)