“Now don’t, please, good Jackal—don’t say anything of it this time. The fright I have had is quite sufficient to keep me from touching a bone again.”
“Well, I am sure I don’t wish you any harm, but for your life’s sake do not be so dull as to forget the lesson you have learned.”
Soon after Leopardess returned with a small antelope for the morrow’s breakfast, and cried out to Jackal, as was usual with her on returning from the hunt:
“Now, my Jackal, bring the cubs hither; my dugs are so heavy. How are the little ones?”
“Ah, very well, ma’am: poor little dears, they have been in a sweet sleep ever since you went out.”
A few days later, Leopardess brought a fat young zebra, and Jackal displayed his best skill in preparing it for dinner. Dog also assisted with wise suggestions in the preparation of certain auxiliaries to the feast. When all was ready, Dog laid the table, and as fast as Jackal brought the various dishes, Dog arranged them in the most tempting manner on fresh banana-leaves, spread over the ample plateau. Just before sitting down to the meal, Leopardess heard a strange noise without, and bounded to the door, growling angrily at being disturbed. Dog instantly seized the opportunity of her absence to extract a great bone from one of the trays, and stowed it in a recess in the wall of the passage leading from the kitchen. Presently Leopardess came back, and when the cubs were brought the meal was proceeded with in silence. When they had all eaten enough, the good effect of it was followed by commendations upon the cooking, and the juicy flavour of the meat, and how well Jackal had prepared everything. Neither was Dog forgotten by the mistress and her young ones, and he was dismissed with the plenteous remnants of the feast for himself and mate, with the courteous hope that they would find enough and to spare.
In the afternoon Leopardess, having refreshed herself with a nap, sallied out once more, enjoining Jackal, as she was going out of the den, to be attentive to her little ones during her absence.
While his friend Jackal proceeded towards the cubs, Dog surreptitiously abstracted his bone from the cavity in the passage wall, and trotted out unobserved. When he had arrived at a secluded place, he lay down, and, seizing the bone between his paws, was about to give it a preliminary lick, when again, to his dismay and alarm, the bone flew up and away straight for the door. Dog loped after it as fast as his limbs could carry him, crying out:
“Oh, Jackal, Jackal, good Jackal! Shut the door. Hurry up. Shut the door, good Jackal.”
Again Jackal heard his friend’s cry, and sprang up to close the door, and the instant he had done so the bone struck it with dreadful force.