“Don’t you know what is going to happen? The sky is going to fall down, and everybody will be crushed to dust unless he takes shelter in a pit. If you want to save your life you had better jump in.”
The Pig jumped into the pit, and the Mouse-Deer got on his back, but he found he was not high enough to enable him to leap out.
Next a Deer came along, and, seeing the two animals in the pit, asked them what they were doing there.
The Mouse-Deer replied: “The sky is going to fall, and everyone will be crushed unless he hides in some hole. Jump in if you want to save your life.”
The Deer sprang in, and the Mouse-Deer made him stand on the back of the Pig; then he himself got on the back of the Deer and jumped out of the pit, leaving the other two to their fate.
The Deer and the Pig were very angry at being tricked in this way by such a small animal as the Mouse-Deer. They scratched the side of the pit until it sloped, and enabled them to get out; then they followed the trail of the Mouse-Deer, and soon overtook him.
The Mouse-Deer saw them coming, and climbed up a tree, from the boughs of which a large beehive was hanging.
“Come down,” said the Pig and Deer angrily. “You have deceived us, and we mean to kill you.”
“Deceived you?” said the Mouse-Deer. “When did I deceive you, or do anything to deserve death?”
“Didn’t you tell us that the sky was going to fall, and that if we did not hide ourselves in a pit we should be killed?”