Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 2 · page 21 2101The first thing the tortoise did was to call his brothers and his cousins together, and he posted them carefully under ferns all along the line of the great clearing, making a sort of ladder which stretched for many miles.102This done to his satisfaction, he went back to the starting place.103The stag was quite punctual, and as soon as the sun’s rays struck the trunk of the tree the stag started off, and was soon far out of the sight of the tortoise.104Every now and then he would turn his head as he ran, and call out: “How are you getting on?” and the tortoise who happened to be nearest at that moment would answer: “All right, I am close up to you.”105Full of astonishment, the stag would redouble his efforts, but it was no use.106Each time he asked: “Are you there?” the answer would come: “Yes, of course, where else should I be?”107And the stag ran, and ran, and ran, till he could run no more, and dropped down dead on the grass.108And the tortoise, when he thinks about it, laughs still.109But the tortoise was not the only creature of whose tricks stories were told in the forest.110There was a famous monkey who was just as clever and more mischievous, because he was so much quicker on his feet and with his hands.111It was quite impossible to catch him and give him the thrashing he so often deserved, for he just swung himself up into a tree and laughed at the angry victim who was sitting below.checked by a teacher112Sometimes, however, the inhabitants of the forest were so foolish as to provoke him, and then they got the worst of it.113This was what happened to the barber, whom the monkey visited one morning, saying that he wished to be shaved.114The barber bowed politely to his customer, and begging him to be seated, tied a large cloth round his neck, and rubbed his chin with soap; but instead of cutting off his beard, the barber made a snip at the end of his tail.115It was only a very little bit and the monkey started up more in rage than in pain.116“Give me back the end of my tail,” he roared, “or I will take one of your razors.”117The barber refused to give back the missing piece, so the monkey caught up a razor from the table and ran away with it, and no one in the forest could be shaved for days, as there was not another to be got for miles and miles.1 2← previousStory of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 1next →Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-Hearted, part 3↑ back to The Brown Fairy BookThis page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3282/35/page/2/