‘Oh!’ cried the woman, ‘what a state you are in! What have you been doing?’
‘It was Kabo who broke my leg at the slinging game,’ said Pivi.
‘Well, I am sorry for you,’ said the woman; ‘will you come with me, and do what I tell you?’
‘I will!’ said Pivi, for the woman was very kind and pretty. She took Pivi into a shed where she kept her fruit, laid him on a bed of mats, and made him as comfortable as she could, and attended to his broken leg without cutting off the flesh round the bone, as these people usually do.
‘You will be still, won’t you, Pivi?’ she said. ‘If you hear a little noise you will pretend to be dead. It is the Black Ant who will come and creep from your feet up to your head. Say nothing, and keep quiet, won’t you, Pivi?’
‘Certainly, kind lady,’ said Pivi, ‘I will lie as still as can be.’
‘Next will come the big Red Ant—you know him?’
‘Yes, I know him, with his feet like a grasshopper’s.’
‘He will walk over your body up to your head. Then you must shake all your body. Do you understand, Pivi?’
‘Yes, dear lady, I shall do just as you say.’