“No-oo, thank you, Mammy! I would rather stay at home with you,” said Skipster.
“No-oo, No-oo, thank you, Mammy!” said Jumpster.
“No-oo, No-oo, thank you, Mammy!” said Poley.
They looked about at Roley to join in their frolic but, to their great surprise, Roley said, “Yes, Mammy, I will go, gladly.”
“Baa-ba-bad. Too bad-baa-baad!” bleated the other three kids. “Oh, don’t go, poor Roley, we do not trust that terrible tiger!”
But Roley would not heed their warning. He knew what he was about and he made up his mind that he would not let that terrible tiger trick him.
So Roley went home with the tiger, and although she purred over him and made a great fuss over him, he watched her very sharply.
When it was time to go to bed, Roley pretended to go to sleep, but he was watching all the time. At last he heard the old tiger snoring. He got up as softly as he could and went to the back of the den and found one of the baby tigers. They had not gone out as their mother had said, but were sleeping in a dark corner.
Roley took the little tiger-cub and put it down by the Mother Tiger, then he went and hid by the other little tiger.
About midnight the old Mother Tiger awoke and felt the little warm thing curled up by her side. Then she brought down her powerful paw with such force that she killed the little one at once, and gobbled him up. It was so pitchy black that she did not know, until morning, that she had eaten one of her own babies by mistake, for there was little Roley on the floor playing with her other little one.