At these terrible words the Mother Sheep almost fainted with fright, and her grief was pitiful to behold. The little Sheep joined his mother in her wailings, and the mournful noise they made attracted the attention of the Queen of the Birds, who came out of the forest and perched herself on a tree near their house.
"What is the matter, good Sheep?" she asked, "and what is the cause of your grief?"
"Alas, alas! Brother Tiger has devoured my poor husband!"
"Ah, the infamous villain!" exclaimed the Queen of the Birds.
"We will not dare to venture out any more," continued the Mother Sheep. "The vile assassin will hide around here and try to devour us also."
Touched by the tears of the Mother Sheep and her son, the Queen of the Birds tried to console them the best she could, and promised them that they should be revenged, and in a moment she had flown away to the neighboring forests. She gave utterance to her well-known cry—
"Pingle, pingle!
Dingle, dingle!"
and in a very short time her faithful subjects could be seen coming from all sides, birds of high and low degree, of bright plumage and dull—the red-breast and the white-cap, the bald eagle and the green parrots. The Queen of the Birds uttered her musical call again—
"Pingle, pingle!