“How suspicious the Jackal is, to be sure,” said the Alligator to himself. “But if he wants to see figs tumble about I can make them, and when he comes to eat them, I will catch him and gobble him up.” So the great beast shook himself and all the figs went, rolling right off his back, farther than any blustering wind could have blown them, and the Jackal could see the leathery back of the Alligator. So he scampered away, calling out mockingly:
“So kind of you, Mr. Alligator, to let me know just where you are buried under that great heap of figs. No! I don’t believe that I want to eat any figs today.”
The Alligator was so angry that he snapped his jaws and gnashed his teeth with rage. He ran after the Jackal as fast as he could go but, of course, a big Alligator cannot crawl very fast on his short legs, and the Jackal ran so much faster that the Alligator had to give up the chase. But he said to himself:
The Alligator was so angry that he lashed the water to a foam with his tail....
“I will not allow that tricky little wretch to mock me and run out of my reach in this way. I will show him that I can be just as cunning as he is.”
So, early the next morning, the old Alligator crawled as fast as he could to the Jackal’s den and crept into it and hid himself to wait for the little Jackal to come home.
When the Jackal came near to his den, he thought, “Dear me! dear me! The ground is all torn up about here as though some great heavy creature had been crawling over it, and the earth is knocked down at the side of my door as though some big animal had been pushing through it. I certainly will not go into my den until I am sure that everything is safe there.”
Then the little Jackal began to call out in a sweet voice, “Little house, my pretty little house! Why do you not answer me when I call? When all is safe and right you always call out to me and welcome me back home. Is anything wrong today, little house, that you will not speak to me?”