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South American Jungle Tales - Horacio Quiroga · Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar

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  Speaker 1: Section one of South American Jungle Tales. This is a
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
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  Speaker 1: Recording by James K. White. South American Jungle Tales by
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  Speaker 1: Oracio Kiroga, translated by Arthur Livingstone. Section one, How the
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  Speaker 1: Rays defended the Ford. In South America, there is a
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  Speaker 1: river called the yabe Biddy, and it flows through the
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  Speaker 1: city of Missions. In this river there are many rays,
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  Speaker 1: a kind of mudfish like the saltwater skate, and the
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  Speaker 1: river indeed gets its name from them. Yabebiddy means the
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  Speaker 1: river of rayfish. The ray is a wide flatfish with
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  Speaker 1: a long, slender tail. The tail is very bony, and
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  Speaker 1: when it strikes you, it cuts and leaves poison in
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  Speaker 1: the wound. There are so many rays in the river
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  Speaker 1: that it is dangerous even to put your foot into
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  Speaker 1: the water. I once knew a man who had his
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  Speaker 1: heel pricked by a ray. He had to walk more
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  Speaker 1: than two miles home, groaning with pain all the way
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  Speaker 1: and fainting several times from the poison. The pain from
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  Speaker 1: a rae bite is one of the sharpest pains one
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  Speaker 1: can feel. But there are also other kinds of fish
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  Speaker 1: in the Aaba Biddi, and most of them are good
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  Speaker 1: to eat. That is why some evil men once began
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  Speaker 1: to fish for them with dynamite. They put the dynamite
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  Speaker 1: under water and set it off. The shock of the
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  Speaker 1: explosion stunned and killed all the fish near by, and
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  Speaker 1: not only the big fish, but also the little ones,
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  Speaker 1: which cannot be eaten. It is very cruel and wasteful
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  Speaker 1: to hunt fish with dynamite. However, there was a man
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  Speaker 1: who lived on the bank of the river, and he
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  Speaker 1: was sorry for the poor fish, especially the little ones,
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  Speaker 1: and he told the bad men that they must stop
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  Speaker 1: bombing the fish. At first, they were angry and said
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  Speaker 1: they would do what they liked. But the man was
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  Speaker 1: known everywhere to be an upright, honest man, and finally
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  Speaker 1: they obeyed him and set off no more bombs in
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  Speaker 1: the river. And the fish were grateful to this man,
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  Speaker 1: whom they had come to know the moment he approached
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  Speaker 1: the edge of the water. Whenever he walked along the
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  Speaker 1: bank smoking his pipe, the rays especially would swim along
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  Speaker 1: the bottom to keep him company. He, of course did
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  Speaker 1: not know he had so many friends in the river.
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  Speaker 1: He lived there just because he liked the place. Now,
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  Speaker 1: it happened one afternoon that a fox came running down
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  Speaker 1: to the river, and putting his fore paws into the water,
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  Speaker 1: he called, hey, there, you ray fish, quick quick, Here
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  Speaker 1: comes that friend of yours. He's in trouble. All the
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  Speaker 1: rays who heard came swimming up anxiously to the edge
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  Speaker 1: of the water. What's the matter? Where is he? They asked?
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  Speaker 1: Here he comes, answered the fox. He has been fighting
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  Speaker 1: with a panther and is trying to get away. He
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  Speaker 1: wants to get over to that island. Let cross, for
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  Speaker 1: he is a very good man. Of course we will,
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  Speaker 1: of course we will, the rays answered, as for the panther,
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  Speaker 1: we will fix him. Yes, But remember a panther is
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  Speaker 1: a panther, said the fox, by which he meant that
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  Speaker 1: a panther is almost as hard to fight with as
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  Speaker 1: a tiger. And the fox gave a little jump and
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  Speaker 1: ran back into the woods so as not to be
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  Speaker 1: near when the panther came. A second or two later,
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  Speaker 1: the branches along the river bank were pushed aside, and
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  Speaker 1: the man came running down to the water's edge. He
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  Speaker 1: was all bleeding, and his shirt was torn from a
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  Speaker 1: scratch on his face. The blood was streaming down off
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  Speaker 1: his chin, and his sleeves were wet with blood.
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  Speaker 2: Also.
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  Speaker 1: It was clear that the man was very badly hurt,
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  Speaker 1: for he almost fell as he ran out into the river.
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  Speaker 1: When he put his feet into the water, the rays
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  Speaker 1: moved aside so that their tails would not touch him,
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  Speaker 1: and he waded across to the island, with the water
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  Speaker 1: coming up to his breast. On the other side. He
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  Speaker 1: fell to the ground, fainting from loss of blood. The
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  Speaker 1: rays did not have much time to sit there, pitying him.
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  Speaker 1: Some distance behind the man, the panther came, jumping along
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  Speaker 1: with great leaps to catch him. The big wild cat
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  Speaker 1: stopped on the bank and gave a great roar, but
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  Speaker 1: up and down the river the rays went, calling the
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  Speaker 1: panther the panther, and they gathered together near the shore
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  Speaker 1: to attack him if he tried to cross. The panther
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  Speaker 1: looked up and down the stream, and finally he spied
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  Speaker 1: the man lying helpless on the island. He too was
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  Speaker 1: badly wounded and dripping with blood, but he was determined
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  Speaker 1: to eat the man at any cost. With another great howl.
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  Speaker 1: He leaped into the water almost instantly. However, he felt
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  Speaker 1: as though a hundred pins and needles were sticking into
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  Speaker 1: his paws. You see, the rays were trying to block
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  Speaker 1: the ford and were stinging him with the stingers and
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  Speaker 1: their tails. He gave one big jump back to the
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  Speaker 1: river bank and stood there, roaring and holding one paw
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  Speaker 1: up in the air because it hurt him to step
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  Speaker 1: on it. After a moment, he looked down into the
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  Speaker 1: water and saw that it was all black and muddy.
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  Speaker 1: The rays were coming in great crowds and stirring up
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  Speaker 1: the bottom of the river. Aha, said the panther. Ah, ha,
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  Speaker 1: I see it is you, you bad, wicked rayfish. It
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  Speaker 1: was you who gave me all those stings. Well, now
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  Speaker 1: just get out of the way. We will not get
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  Speaker 1: out of the way, answered the rays. Away, I tell you,
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  Speaker 1: said the panther. We won't, said the rays. He is
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  Speaker 1: a good man. It is not right to kill him.
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  Speaker 1: He gave me these wounds, you see, said the panther.
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  Speaker 1: I must punish him, and you gave him his wounds too,
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  Speaker 1: said the rays. But that is all a matter for
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  Speaker 1: you folks in the woods to settle, so long as
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  Speaker 1: this man is on the river. He is in our province,
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  Speaker 1: and we intend to protect him. Get out of my way,
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  Speaker 1: said the panther. Not never, said the rays. You see,
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  Speaker 1: the rays had never been to school, and they said
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  Speaker 1: not never, and not nothing, the way children sometimes do
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  Speaker 1: and never ought to do. Not never. Well we'll see,
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  Speaker 1: said the panther, with another great roar, and he ran
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  Speaker 1: up the bank to get a start for one great jump.
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  Speaker 1: The panther understood that the rays were packed close in
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  Speaker 1: along the shore, and he figured that if he could
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  Speaker 1: jump away out into the stream, he would get beyond
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  Speaker 1: them and their stingers and finally reach the wounded man
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  Speaker 1: on the island. But some of the rays saw what
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  Speaker 1: he was going to do, and they began to shout
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  Speaker 1: to one another, out to mid stream, Out to mid stream,
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  Speaker 1: He's going to jump, He's going to jump. The panther
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  Speaker 1: did succeed in making a very long leap, and for
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  Speaker 1: some seconds after he struck the water, he felt no pain.
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  Speaker 1: He gave a great roar of delight, thinking he had
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  Speaker 1: deceived his enemies. But then all of a sudden, sting
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  Speaker 1: here and sting there in front and back on his sides,
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  Speaker 1: the rays were upon him again, driving their poisonous stingers
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  Speaker 1: in to his skin. For a moment, the panther thought
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  Speaker 1: it was as easy to go forward as back, and
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  Speaker 1: he kept on. But the rays were now all over
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  Speaker 1: along the island, so the panther turned and went back
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  Speaker 1: to the shore he had left. He was now about done.
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  Speaker 1: He just had to lie down on his side to
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  Speaker 1: keep the bottoms of his feet off the ground, and
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  Speaker 1: his stomach went up and down as he breathed deeply
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  Speaker 1: from fatigue and pain. He was growing dizzy also because
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  Speaker 1: the poison from the stings was getting into his brain.
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  Speaker 1: The rays were not satisfied, however, They kept crowding up
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  Speaker 1: along the shore because they knew that panthers never go alone,
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  Speaker 1: but always with a mate. This mate would come and
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  Speaker 1: they would again have to defend the ford, And so
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  Speaker 1: it was soon the sheep panther came down, roaring through
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  Speaker 1: the bushes to rescue her husband. She looked across to
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  Speaker 1: the island where the man was lying wounded, and then
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  Speaker 1: at her mate, who lay there panting at her feet,
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  Speaker 1: and then down into the water, which was black with
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  Speaker 1: rays rayfish. She called, well, madam, answered the rays, Let
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  Speaker 1: me cross the river. No crossing here for panthers, said
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  Speaker 1: the rays. I'll bite the tails off every one of you,
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  Speaker 1: said the sheep panther. Even without our tails, we won't
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  Speaker 1: let you cross, said the rays. For the last time.
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  Speaker 1: Out of my way, said the sheep panther. Not never,
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  Speaker 1: said the rays. The sheep panther now put one foot
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  Speaker 1: into the water, but a ray struck at her with
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  Speaker 1: its stinger and made a sting right between two of
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  Speaker 1: her toes. Ouch growled the sheep panther. We we have
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  Speaker 1: at least one tail left, mocked the rays. But the
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  Speaker 1: sheep panther began to scowl. Now when panthers are thinking
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  Speaker 1: very hard, they scowl. This one scowled her face into
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  Speaker 1: deep wrinkles, which meant that she had a very important idea.
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  Speaker 1: She did not let on what it was. However, she
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  Speaker 1: just trotted off up the bank into the woods without
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  Speaker 1: saying another word. But the rays understood what she was
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  Speaker 1: up to. She was going to some place farther along
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  Speaker 1: the stream where there were no rays, and would swim
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  Speaker 1: across before they could reach her. And a great fright
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  Speaker 1: came over them. Rays cannot swim very fast, and they
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  Speaker 1: knew that the sheep panther would get there before they did.
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  Speaker 1: Oh no, they cried to each other. Now our poor
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  Speaker 1: man friend is done for. How can we let the
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  Speaker 1: rays down there? Know that we must prevent the panther
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  Speaker 1: from crossing at any cost. But a little ray, who
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  Speaker 1: was a very bright and clever little fish, spoke up
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  Speaker 1: and said, get the sh to carry a message. Shiners
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  Speaker 1: can swim like lightning, and they too ought to be
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  Speaker 1: grateful to the man for stopping those bombs. That's it,
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  Speaker 1: that's it. Let's send the shiners. A school of shiners
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  Speaker 1: happened to be just going by, and the rays sent
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  Speaker 1: them off with a message to all the rays along
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  Speaker 1: the river, sting the sheep panther if she tries to cross,
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  Speaker 1: hold the ford against the sheep panther. Though the shiners
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  Speaker 1: swam very very fast, they were barely in time. The
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  Speaker 1: panther was already in the water and had begun to
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  Speaker 1: swim out beyond her depth. In fact, she was almost
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  Speaker 1: over on the other side, toward the island. But when
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  Speaker 1: her paws struck bottom and she began to wade again,
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  Speaker 1: the rays were on hand. They rushed in packs upon
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  Speaker 1: her legs and feet, stinging them with tins hundreds thousands
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  Speaker 1: of stings. At the same time, more rays crowded in
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  Speaker 1: between the panther and the shore. With pain and anger,
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  Speaker 1: She finally swam back to the place where she had
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  Speaker 1: jumped in and rolled about on the ground in agony.
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  Speaker 1: When she came back to where her husband was lying,
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  Speaker 1: her paws and legs were all swollen from the poison.
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  Speaker 1: The rays, for their part, were getting very tired from
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  Speaker 1: all this stinging and hurrying to and fro, and they
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  Speaker 1: were not much relieved when they saw the panther and
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  Speaker 1: the she panther get up all of a sudden and
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  Speaker 1: go off into the woods. What were they up to now?
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  Speaker 1: The rays were very much worried, and they gathered together
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  Speaker 1: in council. Do you know what I think, said the
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  Speaker 1: oldest ray. I think they have gone off to get
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  Speaker 1: all the other panthers. When they come back, they will
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  Speaker 1: be too much for us, and they will surely get across.
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  Speaker 1: That is so said the other rays, the older and
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  Speaker 1: more experienced ones. At least one or two will get across.
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  Speaker 1: That will be the end of our friend the man.
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  Speaker 1: Suppose we go and have a talk with him for
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  Speaker 1: the first time. They now went over to where the
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  Speaker 1: man was lying. They had been too busy up to
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  Speaker 1: then to think of him. The man had lost a
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  Speaker 1: great deal of blood and was still lying on the ground,
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  Speaker 1: but he was able to sit up enough to talk.
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  Speaker 1: The rays told him how they had been defending the
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  Speaker 1: ford against the panthers who had been trying to eat him.
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  Speaker 1: The man could hardly keep in his tears as he
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  Speaker 1: thought of the friendship these fishes had for him. He
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  Speaker 1: thanked them by reaching out his hand and stroking the
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  Speaker 1: nearest ones on the nose. But then he moaned, alas,
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  Speaker 1: you cannot save me. When the panthers come back, there
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  Speaker 1: will be many of them, and if they want to
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  Speaker 1: get across they can. No, they can't, said a little ray.
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  Speaker 1: No they can't. Nobody but a friend of ours can
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  Speaker 1: cross this ford. I'm afraid they will be too much
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  Speaker 1: for you, said the man sadly. After a moment's thought,
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  Speaker 1: he added, there might be one way to stop them,
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  Speaker 1: if there were some one to go and get my rifle.
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  Speaker 1: I have a Winchester with a box of bullets, but
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  Speaker 1: the only friends I have near here are fish, and
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  Speaker 1: fish can't bring me a rifle, well, asked the rays. Anxiously. Yes, yes,
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  Speaker 1: said the man, rubbing his forehead with his right hand,
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  Speaker 1: as though trying to collect his thoughts. Let's see. Once
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  Speaker 1: I had a friend, a river hog, whom I tamed
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  Speaker 1: and kept in my house to play with my children.
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  Speaker 1: One day he got homesick and went back to the
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  Speaker 1: woods to live. I don't know what became of him,
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  Speaker 1: but I think he came to this neighborhood. The rays
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  Speaker 1: gave one great shout of joy. We know him, we
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  Speaker 1: know him. He lives in the cave just below here
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  Speaker 1: in the river bank. We remember now that he once
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  Speaker 1: told us he knew you very well. We will send
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  Speaker 1: him to get the rifle. No sooner said than done.
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  Speaker 1: A shiner, who was the fastest swimmer in his school,
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  Speaker 1: started off down the river to where the river hog lived.
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  Speaker 1: It was not far away, and before long the river
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  Speaker 1: hog came up on the bank across the river. The
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  Speaker 1: man picked up a fishbone from the ground near him, and,
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  Speaker 1: dipping it in some blood that was on his hand,
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  Speaker 1: wrote on a dry leaf this letter to his wife,
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  Speaker 1: Dear wife, send me my winchester by this river hog
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  Speaker 1: with a full box of a hundred bullets. Signed the man.
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  Speaker 1: He was just finishing the letter, when the whole river
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  Speaker 1: valley began to tremble with the most frightful roars. The
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  Speaker 1: panthers were coming back in a large company to force
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  Speaker 1: a crossing and devour their enemy. Quickly, two rays stuck
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  Speaker 1: their heads out of the water. The man handed them
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  Speaker 1: the leaf with a letter written on it, and holding
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  Speaker 1: it up clear of the water, they swam over to
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  Speaker 1: where the river hog was. He took it in his
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  Speaker 1: mouth and ran off as fast as he could toward
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  Speaker 1: the man's house. And he had no time to lose.
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  Speaker 1: The roaring was now very close to the river, and
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  Speaker 1: every moment it was getting nearer. The rays called ancient
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  Speaker 1: to the shiners, who were hovering in the water nearby,
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  Speaker 1: waiting for orders. Quick shiners, swim up and down the river,
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  Speaker 1: and give a general alarm. Have all the rays gather
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  Speaker 1: about the island on every side. We will see whether
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  Speaker 1: these panthers get across and up and down the river.
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  Speaker 1: The shiners darted, streaking the surface with tiny black wakes.
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  Speaker 1: So fast did they move. The rays began coming out
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  Speaker 1: from the mud, from under the stones, from the mouths
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  Speaker 1: of the brooks, From all along the river. They assembled
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  Speaker 1: in solid masses almost around the island, bent on keeping
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  Speaker 1: the panthers back at whatever cost. And meanwhile the shiners
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  Speaker 1: came streaming up and down past the island, raising new
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  Speaker 1: recruits and ready to give the word when the panthers appeared.
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  Speaker 1: And the panthers did appear at last, with a great roar,
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  Speaker 1: and army of them came leaping down to the river bank.
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  Speaker 1: There were a hundred of them, perhaps at least all
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  Speaker 1: the panthers in the woods around missiones. But on the
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  Speaker 1: other hand, the river was now packed with rays who
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  Speaker 1: were ready to die rather than let a single panther across.
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  Speaker 1: Get out of our way, roared the panthers. No trespassing
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  Speaker 1: on this river, said the rays. Gangway, called the panthers.
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  Speaker 1: Keep out, said the rays. If you don't get out
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  Speaker 1: of the way, we will eat every ray, and every
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  Speaker 1: son of a ray, and every grandson of a ray,
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  Speaker 1: not counting the women and children, said the panthers. Perhaps,
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  Speaker 1: said the rays. But no panther, nor any son, grandson, daughter, granddaughter, sister, brother, wife, aunt,
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  Speaker 1: or uncle of a panther will ever get across this
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  Speaker 1: ford for one last time. Get out of the way.
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  Speaker 1: Not never, said the rays. And the battle began with
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  Speaker 1: enormous bounds and jumps and leaps. The panthers plunged into
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  Speaker 1: the river, but they landed on an almost solid floor
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  Speaker 1: of rayfish. The rays plunged their stingers into the panthers feet,
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  Speaker 1: and at each prick, the panthers would send up the
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  Speaker 1: most blood curdling roars. Meanwhile, the panthers were clawing and
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: kicking at the rays, making frightful splashes in the water,
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  Speaker 1: and tossing up rayfish by the barrelful. Hundreds and hundreds
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  Speaker 1: of rays were caught and torn by the panther's claws
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  Speaker 1: and went floating down the Yaba Biddy, which was soon
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  Speaker 1: all tinged with ray blood. But the panthers were getting
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  Speaker 1: terribly stung too, and many of them had to go
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  Speaker 1: back to the shore, where they lay roaring and whining,
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  Speaker 1: holding their swollen paws up in the air. Though many
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  Speaker 1: more of the rays were being trampled on and scratched
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  Speaker 1: and bitten, they held their ground. Sometimes, when a ray
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  Speaker 1: had been tossed into the air by a panther's paw,
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  Speaker 1: he would return to the fight after he had fallen
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  Speaker 1: back into the water. The combat had now lasted as
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  Speaker 1: long as half an hour. By that time, the panthers
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  Speaker 1: were tired out and had gone back to the shore.
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  Speaker 1: They came from where they sat down to rest and
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  Speaker 1: to lick the stings and their paws. Not one of
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  Speaker 1: them had been able to cross the ford, however, But
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: the rays were in a terrible plight. Thousands of them
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  Speaker 1: had been killed, and those that still remained were about
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  Speaker 1: tired to death. We cannot stand a second attack like
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: this one, said the rays. Hey, shiners, go up and
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  Speaker 1: down the river again and bring us reinforcements. We must
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  Speaker 1: have every single last ray there is in the yabe biddi.
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: And again the shiners were off up and down the river,
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: flecking the surface of the water with the wakes. They left.
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: The rays now thought they should consult the man again.
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: We cannot hold out much longer, said the rays, and
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: some of them actually wept for the poor man who
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: was going to be eaten by the panthers. Never mind, please,
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: my dear little rays, answered the man. You have done
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: enough for me. It's a pity that any more of
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: you should die. Now you had better let the panthers
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: come across. Not never, cried the rays. So long as
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: there is a ray left alive. We shall defend the
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: man who defended us and saved our lives from the bombers,
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: my dear friends, said the man in reply, I think
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: I am bound to die anyway. I am so badly wounded.
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: But I can promise you that when that Winchester arrives,
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: you will see some exciting things. That much I am
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: sure of. Yes, we know, we know, said the rays,
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: but they could not continue the conversation. The battle was
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: on again. The panthers had now rested and were crouching
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: all on the river bank, ready to take off with
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: great leaps and bounds. We'll give you one last chance,
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: they called to the rays. Now be reasonable, get out
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: of our way. Not never, said the rays, crowding up
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: close along the shore front of the panthers. In a flash,
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: the panthers were in the water again, and the same
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: terrible fight as before was taking place. The Yabe Biddi
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: from shore to shore was one mass of bloody foam.
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: Hundreds and hundreds of rays were tossed into the air
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: while the panthers bellowed from the pain in their paws.
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: But not a panther and not a ray gave an
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: inch of ground. However, the panthers were little by little
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: forcing their way forward in vain. The shiners darted up
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: and down the river, calling in more and more rays
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: to battle. There were no rays left anywhere along the stream.
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: Every last ray was either fighting desperately in the army
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: around the island, or was floating bruised and bleeding down
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: the current. Such as were still left were all but
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: helpless from the fatigue of their great efforts, and now
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: they realized that the battle was lost. Five of the
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: biggest panthers had broken through the lines of the rays
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: and were swimming through clear water straight toward the island.
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: The poor rays decided they would rather die than see
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: their poor friend eaten by the panthers. Retreat to the island.
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: They called to each other back to the island, but
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: this was too late, alas two more panthers had now
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: broken through the line, and when the rays started for
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: the island, every last panther on the shore jumped into
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: the water and made for the wounded man. Ten twenty fifty,
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: perhaps a hundred panthers could be seen swimming with just
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: their heads out of the water. But what was that
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: down there? The rays had been so busy fighting. They
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: had not noticed before from a point on the shore,
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: some distance below the ford, a brown, fuzzy animal had
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: gone into the water and had been swimming all this
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: time toward the island. It was the river hog, paddling
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: along as fast as he could, with his head and
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: neck out of the water and the winchester in his mouth.
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: He was holding his head away up like that to
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: keep the rifle dry. On the end of the rifle
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: hung the man's cartridge belt full of bullets. The man
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: gave a great cry of joy, for the river hog
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: was quite a distance ahead of the panthers, and he
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: would be ashore by the time they began to wait again,
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: And the river hog did get there in no time.
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: The man was too weak to move much, so the
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: river hog pulled him around by the collar so that
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: he lay facing the panthers. In this position, the man
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: loaded the rifle and took aim. The rays, meanwhile, were heartbroken, crushed, scratched, bruised, bleeding,
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: worn out from struggling. They saw that they had lost
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: the battle. The panthers were almost over to the island.
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: In a few moments their friend would be eaten alive.
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: Crack crack, bing bing. The rays, who had their eyes
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: out of water, suddenly saw a panther who was just
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: coming up out of the river toward the man, give
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: a great leap into the air and fall back to
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: the ground in a heap. The rays understood.
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: Hooray, hooray, hooray.
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: Shouted the rays, the man has the rifle.
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: He is saved. We have one.
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: And they dirtied all the water. So much mud did
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: they stir up by the dancing. They started on the
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: bottom of the river, crack crack, ping ping. The rifle
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: kept going off, and the bullets kept singing through the air.
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: At each shot, a panther fell dead on the sand
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: or sank drowning under the water. The shooting did not
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: last more than a minute and a half. However, after
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: ten or a dozen panthers had been killed, the others
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: swam back to the opposite shore and ran off into
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: the woods. The panthers that were killed in the water
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: sank to the bottom where the hornpouts ate them. Others
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: kept afloat, and the shiners went down the Yaba Biddi
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: with them all the way to the Piranha. Having a
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: great feat east off panther meet and jumping and hopping
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: along the top of the water to express their delight.
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: When the friends of the wounded man came to get him,
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: they skinned the panthers that were lying on the shore,
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: and the man's wife had a set of new rugs
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: for her dining room. Soon the man got well again,
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: and the rays, who have a great many children each year,
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: were as numerous as ever. After one season. The men
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: was so grateful for what they had done in trying
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: to save his life that he built a bungalow on
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: the island and went there to live during his vacations.
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: On nights in summer when the moon was shining, he
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: would go out in front of his bungalow and sit
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: down on a rock over the water to smoke his pipe.
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: The rays would creep up softly over the bottom and
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: point him out to fish who did not know him.
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: There he is see the panthers came across over here.
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: We stood in line over there, and when the panthers
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: broke through, the man took his rifle and end of
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: section one recording by James K. White. Chula Vista, Section
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: two of South American Jungle Tales by Orasio Kidoga translated
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: by Arthur Livingstone. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: Recording by James K. White, Section two The story of
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: two raccoon cubs and two man cubs. Once there was
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: a mother raccoon who had three cubs. They all lived
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: in the woods, eating fruits and berries and birds eggs.
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: Whenever they were on a tree top and heard a noise,
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: they would jump head foremost to the ground and scamper
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: off with their tails in the air. One day, when
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: the cubs had grown to be quite large sized raccoons,
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: their mother took them up all together to the top
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: of an orange tree. You must know that in South
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: America orange trees, which came originally from Spain, now grow
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: wild in the forest. And spoke to them as follows cublets.
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: You are almost big enough to be called raccoons, and
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: it is time you began to hunt for your meals
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: by yourselves. It is very important for you to know
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: how to do this, because when you get to be old,
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: you will go around all alone in the world, as
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: all raccoons do. The oldest of you, like snails and cockroaches,
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: he must hunt around woodpiles and under trunks of rotting
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: trees where there are always plenty of snails and cockroaches.
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: The next to the oldest of you seems to like oranges.
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: Up to the month of December, there will be plenty
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: of oranges right here in this grove. The youngest of
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: you is always asking for birds eggs. Well, there are
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: birds nests everywhere. All he will have to do is hunt.
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: But one thing, however, he must never go down to
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: the farm looking for eggs. It is very bad for
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: raccoons to go near farms couplets. There is one thing more.
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: You must all be afraid of dogs. Dogs. Never go
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: near a dog. Once I had a fight with a dog.
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: Do you see this broken tooth? Well, I broke it
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: in a fight with a dog, and so I know
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: what I'm talking about. And behind dogs come people with guns,
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: and the guns make a great noise and kill raccoons.
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: Whenever you hear a dog or a man or a gun,
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: jump for your lives, no matter how high the tree is,
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: and run, run, run. If you don't, they will kill
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: you as sure as preaching. That is what the mother
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: raccoons said to her cublets. Whereupon they all got down
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: from the tree top and went each his own way,
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: nosing about in the leaves from right to left and
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: from left to right, as though they were looking for
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: something they had lost, for that is the way raccoons hunt.
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: The biggest of the cubs, who like snails and cockroaches,
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: looked under every piece of dead wood he came to,
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: and overturned the piles of dead leaves. Soon he had
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: eaten such a fine meal that he grew sleepy and
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: lay down in a nice cozy bed of leaves and
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: went to sleep. The second one, who liked oranges, did
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: not move from that very grove. He just went from
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: one tree to another, eating the best oranges. And he
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: did not have to jump from a tree top once,
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: for neither men, nor dogs, nor guns came anywhere near him.
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: But the youngest, who would have nothing but birds eggs,
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: had a harder time of it. He hunted and hunted
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: over the hillsides all day long and found only two
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: birds nests, one belonging to a tucan with three eggs
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: in it, and the other belonging to a wood dove
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: with two eggs in it. Five tiny little eggs. That
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: was not very much to eat for a raccoon. Almost
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: big enough to go to school. When evening came, the
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: little cub was as hungry as he had been that morning,
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: and he sat down, all cold and tired and lonesome,
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: on the very edge of the forest. From the place
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: where he was sitting, he could look down on the
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: green fields of the farm. And he thought of what
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: his mother had said about such places. Now, why did
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: Mama say that? Why shouldn't I go looking for eggs
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: down along those fences on the farm. And just as
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: he was saying this all to himself, what should he
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: hear but the song of a strange bird, cocka doodle doo,
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: coming from far far away, and from the direction of
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: the farmhouse. My, did you ever hear a bird sing
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: so loud? Said the cublet to himself. What a big
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: bird it must be, and its eggs must be the
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: size of a cocoanut. Cocka doodle doo came the bird's
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: song again. The hungry little raccoon just couldn't do without
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: one of those eggs the size of a cocoanut. The
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: bird was singinging somewhere off to the right, So I
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: made a short cut through the woods toward the field.
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: On the other side. The sun was setting, but the
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: raccoon cub ran with his tail in the air. At
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: last he came to the edge of the woods and
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: looked down again into the fields.
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: Cock a doodle doo.
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: Not far away. Now he could see the farmhouse. There
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: was a man in the yard. The man was wearing
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: long boots and leading a horse by the bridle into
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: a barn. On the fence in the barnyard, the little
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: raccoon saw his bird. What a silly little coon I am,
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: he said to himself. That isn't a bird, that's a rooster.
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: Mama showed him to me one day when we were
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: on top of a big tree up in the woods.
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: Roosters have a fine song, and they have a great
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: many hens that lay sweet eggs. I think I could
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: eat a dozen of those eggs right now. For some
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: time the little raccoon sat looking at the rooster and
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: the barn and the farmhouse, and thinking of what his
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: mother had said. But at last he thought, Mamma is
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: far away. She will never know, And he made up
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: his mind that as soon as it was dark, he
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: would run down to that hen coop and see what
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: he could find. Before long, the sun had gone completely
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: and it was so dark you could hardly see your
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: hand before your face. Walking on tiptoe, the little raccoon
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: came out from the shadow of the woods and began
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: making his way toward the farmhouse. When he got into
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: the yard, he stopped and listened carefully. Not a sound.
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: The little raccoon was as happy as could be. He
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: was going to eat a hundred, a thousand, two thousand
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: of those eggs. He looked around for the hen coop.
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: There it was. He stole up to the door and
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: peered in on the ground, and right in front of
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: the door, what should he see but an egg, and
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: such a large egg. If it was not as big
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: as a cocoanut, it was at least as big as
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: an orange. And how brightly it shone in the dark.
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: Guess I'll keep that egg for dessert, thought the cub
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: for a moment. But his mouth began to water and water,
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: and he simply couldn't wait. He stepped up and put
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: his front teeth into that egg b track. He had
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: hardly touched it when there was a sharp snapping noise.
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: The little raccoon felt a hard blow strike him in
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: the face, while a stinging pain caught him in his right. Forepaw, mamma, mamma,
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: he called, jumping wildly this way and that, but he
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: could not get his foot loose. He was caught in
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: a trap, and just at that moment a dog began
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: to bark. All that time, when the little raccoon had
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: been waiting in the woods for night to come so
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: that he could go down to get his eggs in
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: the hen coop, the man who owned the farm house
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: had been playing with his children on the lawn in
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: the yard. One of them was a little girl five
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: years old and the other was a little boy six
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: years old. Both had golden hair. They were chasing their
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: father about and falling down every so often on the grass.
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: Then they would get up again and run some more.
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: The men would also pretend to fall, and the three
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: of them were having a splendid time. When it grew dark,
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: the man said, now let's go and set our trap
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: in the hen coop, so that if the weasel comes
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: to night to kill our chickens and eat our eggs,
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: we will catch him. They went and set the trap.
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: Then the family had dinner, and the little boy and
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: the little girl were put to bed, But they were
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: both very much excited about the trap and the weasel,
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: they could not sleep. Finally, they sat up in their
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: beds and begin to throw pillows at each other. Their
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: father and mother were reading down in the dining room.
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: They heard what the children were doing, but they said nothing.
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: Suddenly the pillow throwing stopped, and after a moment, the
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: little boy called Papa, Papa, the weasel is in the trap.
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: Don't you hear to Kay barking? Let us go too, Papa,
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: to Kay, you see, was the name of the dog.
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: Their father said they might, provided they put their shoes on.
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: He would never let them go out at night barefooted,
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: for fear of coral or rattlesnakes. So they went in
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: their pajamas just as they were. And what if you please,
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: did they find in the trap? Their father stooped down
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: in the doorway of the hen coop, holding to Kay
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: back by the collar. When he stood up, he was
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: holding a little raccoon by the tail. And the little
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: raccoon was snapping and whistling and screaming, Mamma, mamma, in
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: a sharp, shrill voice like a cricket's. Oh don't kill him, Papa,
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: he is such a pretty little coon, said the boy
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: and the girl give him to us, and we will
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: tame him very well, said the father. You may have him,
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: but don't forget that raccoons drink water when they are thirsty,
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: the same as little boys and girls. He said this
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: because once he had caught a wildcat and given it
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: to them for a pet. They fed plenty of meat
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: from the pantry, but they didn't dream that it needed water,
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: and the poor wildcat died. The cage where the wildcat
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: had been kept was still standing near the hen coop.
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: They put the raccoon into the cage and went back
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: into the house. This time, when they went to bed,
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: they fell fast asleep. At once about midnight, when everything
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: was still, the little raccoon, who had a very sore
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: foot from the cuts made in it by the teeth
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: of the trap, saw three shadows come creeping up toward
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: his cage, for the moon was now shining faintly. They
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: came closer and closer, moving softly and noiselessly over the ground.
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: His heart gave a great leap when he discovered that
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: it was his mother and his two brothers who had
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: been looking for him everywhere.
• 35:56
  Speaker 3: Mama, Mama.
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: He began to cry from his cage, soft like so
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: as not to wake up the dog.
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: Here I am here, I am, Oh, get me out
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: of here. I'm afraid. I'm afraid.
• 36:10
  Speaker 3: Mama, Mama, mama.
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: The little raccoon was choking with tears. The mother and
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: the two brother raccoons were as happy as could be
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: to find him. They rubbed their noses against him through
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: the wires in the cage and tried to stroke him
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: with their paws. Then they set to work to get
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: him out if they could. First they examined the wiring
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: of the cage, and one after another they worked at
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: it with their teeth, but the wire was thick and tough,
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: and they could do nothing with it. Then an idea
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: came to the mother raccoon. People cut wires with files.
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: Where can we get a file? A file is a
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: long piece of iron with three sides, like the rattle
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: of a rattlesnake. You push it away from you across
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: the wire, and then you draw it towards you. Finally
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: the wire breaks. Let's hunt around in the blacksmith shop
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: and we may find one. They hurried off to the
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: shop where the farmer kept his tools. Soon they found
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: the file and came back with it.
• 37:12
  Speaker 2: To the cage.
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: Thinking it must be very hard to file off a wire,
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: they all took hold of the file and started pushing
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: it back and forth between two of the wires. They
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: pushed so hard that the cage began to shake all
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: over and made a terrible noise. In fact, it made
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: such a loud noise that Touquet woke up and set
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: to barking at the top of his voice. The raccoons
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: were frightened out of their wits, and, for fear the
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: dog might ask them where they got that file, they
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: scampered off, with their tails in the air, toward the forest.
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: The little boy and the little girl woke up very
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: early in the morning to go see their new pet,
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: who had been brooding sadly in his cage all night long.
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: What shall we call him, asked the little boy. Seventeen,
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: answered the little girl. I can count to seventeen. And
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: what did seventeen have for breakfast? One of those hens
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: eggs he had tried so hard to get the night before,
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: and after the hen's egg, a grasshopper, and then a
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: piece of meat, and then a bunch of grapes, and
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: finally a lump of chocolate. By the end of the day,
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: he was letting the two children reach their finger through
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: the cage to scratch his head. And so pleased was
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: he at all that was now happening to him that
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: he liked being a prisoner in a cage almost as
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: much as being a free raccoon cub on the mountain side.
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: He was all taken up with the nice things that
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: were placed in his coup for him to eat, and
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: he liked those two yellow headed children who kept coming
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: to look at him. That night and the following one
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: to Kay the dog slept so close to seventeen's cage
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: that when his mother and his two brothers came back
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: to make another try at rescuing him, they did not
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: dare approach. But on the third night everything was as
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: it should be. They went directly to the shop, got
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: the file, and her to the cage. But Mamma said
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: the little raccoon, I guess I'd rather stay where I am.
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: They feed me all the eggs I want, and they
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: are very kind to me to day. They told me
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: that if I was good, they would soon let me
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: go about the yard loose. There are two of them
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: with yellow hair, and they are man cubs, just as
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: we are coon cubs. We shall have a fine time
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: playing together.
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: The three wild.
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: Raccoons were very sad to hear all this, but they
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: made the best of it and went away, just promising
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: to come back and see seventeen every night. And so
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: they did each evening, as soon as it was dark,
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: and whether it was fair or rainy. The mother raccoon
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: came with her two couplets to see their little brother.
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: He gave them bread and chocolate, which he handed out
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: between the wires of his cage, and they ate it
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: on the ground near by. In two weeks, he was
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: let loose to run about the yard, and every night
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: he went back to cage of his own accord to sleep.
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: He had his ears tweaked a number of times when
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: the farmer caught him too close to the hen coop.
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: Otherwise he had no trouble at all. The two children
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: became much attached to him, and when the wild raccoons
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: heard how kind those man cubs were to their little brother,
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: they began to be as fond of them as he was.
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: But one night, when it was very dark and very hot,
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: and the thunderstorm was gathering on the mountains, the wild
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: raccoons called to seventeen in vain, seventeen seventeen, seventeen, but
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: he did not answer. In great alarm, they crept up
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: to the cage and looked in. They drew back just
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: in time. There in the door of the cage, a
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: big rattlesnake lay coiled. They'd almost touched him with their noses,
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: and now they knew why seventeen failed to answer. The
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: rattlesnake had bitten him, and probably he was already dead.
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: The three raccoons decided they must first punish the rattlesnake.
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: They rushed upon him from three directions and snipped his
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: head off before he knew what they were about. Then
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: they hurried inside the cage. Seventeen was lying there on
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: the floor in a pool of blood, his feet up
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: in the air and his sides shaking as he panted
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: for breath. They caressed him with their tongues and licked
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: his body all over for more than a quarter of
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: an hour, but it did no good. Seventeen finally opened
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: his mouth and stopped breathing altogether. He was dead. Raccoons
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: ordinarily are not much harmed by rattlesnake poison. Some other
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: animals are not hurt at all, But this snake had
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: bitten seventeen right through an artery, and he had died
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: not of the poison, but from loss of blood. The
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: mother raccoon entered two couplets wept over his body for
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: a long time. Then, since they could do nothing further
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: for him, they left the cage where he had been
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: so happy and went back to the woods. But they
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: kept thinking all the time, what will the two man
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: cubs say when they find that their little playmate is dead.
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: They will probably be very, very sad and cry a
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: long time. They had grown to love the man cubs
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: just from what seventeen had said of them, and one
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: thought was in their three heads to relieve the sorrow
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: of the two man cubs as best they could. They
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: talked the matter over earnestly, and at last they agreed
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: to the following plan. The second youngest cublet looked almost
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: like the raccoon who was dead. He had the same markings,
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: was about the same size, and carried himself in much
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: the same way. Why shouldn't he go and crawl into
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: the cage, taking the place of his brother? The man
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: cubs would probably be surprised, but nothing more. The four
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: of them had talked about everything that went on at
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: the farm so much that the new raccoon could easily
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: pretend he had been there all along. He might do
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: it so well even that the man cubs would not
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: notice anything at all. So they ran back to the cage,
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: and the little raccoon took the place of his dead brother.
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: The mother raccoon and her remaining cub took hold of
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: seventeen with their teeth and dragged him away off to
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: the woods, where they buried him under the leaves. The
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: next day, the man cubs were surprised at a number
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: of strange habits seventeen seemed to have learned during the night,
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: but the new cub was just as affectionate to them
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: as the real seventeen had been, and they never guessed
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: what had happened. The two man cubs played about with
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: the raccoon cub all day long as usual, and at
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: night the two wild raccoons came to pay their usual visit.
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: The tame raccoon saved bits of his boiled eggs for
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: them each time, and they would sit down and eat
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: them on the ground in front of the cage. He
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: told them all that happened at the farm, and they
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: told him all the news about doings in the woods.
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: End of section two. Recording by James K. White, Toula Vista,
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: Section three of South American Jungle Tales by Oracio Kidoga,
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: translated by Arthur Livingstone. This Librivos recording is in the
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: public domain. Recording by James K. White, Section three. The
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: parrot that lost its tail in the woods near a
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: farm lived a flock of parrots. Every morning, the parrots
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: went and ate sweet corn in the garden of the farm.
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: Afternoons they spent in the orange orchards eating oranges. They
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: always made a great to do with their screaming and jawing,
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: but they kept a sentinel posted on one of the
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: tree tops to let them know if the farmer was coming.
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: Parrots are very much disliked by farmers in countries where
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: parrots grow wild, they bite into an of corn and
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: the rest of the ear rots when the next rain comes. Besides,
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: parrots are very good to eat when they are nicely broiled,
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: at least the farmers of South America think so. That
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: is why people hunt them a great deal with shotguns.
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: One day the hired man on this farm managed to
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: shoot the sentinel of the flock of parrots. The parrot
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: fell from the tree top with a broken wing, but
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: he made a good fight of it on the ground,
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: biting and scratching the man several times before he was
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: made a prisoner. You see, the man noticed that the
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: bird was not very badly injured, and he thought he
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: would take it home as a present for the farmer's children.
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: The farmer's wife put the broken wing in splints and
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: tied a bandage tied around the parrot's body. The bird
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: sat quite still for many days until he was entirely cured. Meanwhile,
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: he had become quite tame. The children called him Pedrito,
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: and Paedrito learned to hold out his claw to shake hands.
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: He liked to perch on people's shoulders and to tweak
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: their ears gently with his bill. Pedrito did not have
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: to be kept in a cage. He spent the whole
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: day out in the orange and eucalyptus trees in the
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: yard of the farmhouse. He had a great time making
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: sport of the hens when they cackled. The people of
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: the family had tea in the afternoon, and then Padrito
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: would always come into the dining room and climb up
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: with his claws and beak over the tablecloth to get
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: his bread and milk. What Pedrito liked best of all
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: was bread dipped in tea and milk. The children talked
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: to Padrito so much, and he had so much to
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: say to them that finally he could pronounce quite a
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: number of words in the language of people. He could say, good.
• 46:41
  Speaker 3: Day, Paedrito, and nice Papa, Nice papa papa for Pedrito.
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: Papa is the word for bread and milk in South America.
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: And he said many things that he should not have,
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: for parrots, like children, learn naughty words very easily. On
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: any days, Pedrito would sit on a chair back and
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: grumble and grumble for hours at a time. When the
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: sun came out again, he would begin to fly about,
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: screaming at the top of his voice with pleasure. Pedrito,
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: in short, was a very happy and a very fortunate creature.
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: He was as free as a bird can be. At
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: the same time, he had his afternoon tea like rich people. Now,
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: it happened that one week it rained every day, and
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: Padrito sat indoors, glum and disconsolate all the time. And
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: saying the most bitter and unhappy things to himself. But
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: at last one morning the sun came out bright and glorious.
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: Pedrito could not contain himself.
• 47:41
  Speaker 3: Nice day, Nice day, Pedrito, Nice Papa, Nice Papa, Papa
• 47:46
  Speaker 3: for Pedrito, Your Pa, Paedrito.
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: So he went flitting about the yard, talking gaily to himself,
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: to the hens, to everyone, including the beautiful, splendid sun itself.
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: From a tree top, he saw the river in the distance,
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: a silvery shining thread winding across the plain, and he
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: flew off in that direction, flying, flying, flying, till he
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: was quite tired and had to stop on a tree
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: to rest. Suddenly, on the ground far under him, Padrito
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: saw something shining through the trees, two bright green lights,
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: as big as overgrown lightning bugs. Wonder what that is,
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: thought Pedrito to himself. Nice Papa, Papa for Pedrito, wonder
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: what that is? Good day, Pedrito, your Pa Padrito. And
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: he chattered on, just talking nonsense and mixing his words
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: up so that you could scarcely have understood him. Meantime,
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: he was jumping down from branch to branch to get
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: as close as possible to the two bright, gleaming lights.
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: At last he saw that they were the eyes of
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: a jaguar who was crouching low on the ground and
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: staring up at him intently. But who could be afraid
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: of anything on a nice day like that, Not Pedrito
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: at any rate.
• 49:06
  Speaker 2: Good day, jaguar, said.
• 49:08
  Speaker 3: He nice, Papa, Papa for Pedrito, Your Pa, Pedrito.
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: The jaguar tried to make his voice as gentle as
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: he could, but it was with a growl that he answered,
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: good day, Paul Parrot.
• 49:24
  Speaker 3: Good day, Good day, jaguar, Papa, Papa Papa for Pedrito.
• 49:29
  Speaker 3: Nice Papa.
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: You see, it was getting on toward four o'clock in
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: the afternoon, and all this talk about papa was intended
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: to remind the jaguar that it was tea time. Pedrito
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: had forgotten that jaguars don't serve tea, nor bread and
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: milk as a rule.
• 49:47
  Speaker 3: Nice tea, Nice Papa, Papa for Pedrito. Won't you have
• 49:51
  Speaker 3: tea with me today, jaguar.
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: The jaguar began to get angry, for he thought all
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: this chatter was intended to make fun of him. Besides,
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: he was very hungry and had made up his mind
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: to eat this garrulous bird. Nice bird, nice bird, he growled,
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: Please come a little closer. I'm deaf and can't understand
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: what you say. The jaguar was not deaf. All he
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: wanted was to get the parrot to come down one
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: more branch where he could reach him with his paws.
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: But Padrito was thinking how pleased the children in the
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: family would be to see such a sleek jaguar coming
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: in for tea. He hopped down one more branch and
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: began again.
• 50:39
  Speaker 3: Nice Papa, Papa for Padrito, come home with me, jaguar, just.
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: A little closer, said the jaguar. I can't hear, and
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: Padrito edged a little nearer. Nice Papa, closer, still growled
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: the jaguar and the parrot went down still another branch,
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: But just then the jaguar leaped high in the air,
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: oh twice three times his own length, as high as
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: a house perhaps, and barely managed to reach Paderito with
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: the tips of his claws. He did not succeed in
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: catching the bird, but he did tear out every single
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: feather in Paderito's tail. There, said the jaguar, go and
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: get your bread and milk. Nice Papa, Nice Papa. Lucky
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: for you, I didn't get my paws on you. Terrified
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: and smarting from pain, the parrot took to his wings.
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: He could not fly very well, however, for birds without
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: a tail are much like ships without their rudders. They
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: cannot keep to one direction. He made the most alarming
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: zigzags this way and that, to the right, and to
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: the left, and up and down. All the birds who
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: met him thought surely he had gone crazy, and took
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: good care to keep out of his way. However, he
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: got home again at last, and the people were having
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: tea in the dining room. But the first thing that
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: Pedrito did was to go and look at himself in
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: the mirror. Poor, poor Pedrito, he was the ugliest, most
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: ridiculous bird on earth, not a feather to his tail,
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: his coat of down, all ruffled and bleeding, shivering with
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: chills of fright all over. How could any self respecting
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: bird appear in society in such disarray? Though he would
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: have given almost anything in the world for his usual
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: bread and milk, that day, he flew off to a
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: hollow eucalyptus tree he knew about, crawled in through a hole,
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: and nestled down in the dark, Still shivering with cold
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: and drooping his head and wings in shame. In the
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: dining room meantime, everybody was wondering where the parrot was, Pedrito, Pedrito.
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: The children came calling to the door.
• 52:52
  Speaker 3: Pedrito, Papa, Pedrito, Nice, Papa, Papa for Pedrito.
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: But Pedrito did not say a word. Pedrito did not stir.
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: He just sat there in his hole, sullen, gloomy, and disconsolate.
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: The children looked for him everywhere, but he did not appear.
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: Everybody thought he had gotten lost, perhaps, or that some
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: cat had eaten him, and the little ones began to cry.
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: So the days went by, and every day at tea time,
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: the farmer's family remembered Padrito and how he used to
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: come and have tea with them. Poor Pedrito. Pedrito was dead.
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: No one would ever see Patrito again. But Pedrito was
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: not dead at all. He was just a proud bird
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: and would have been ashamed to let anybody see him
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: without his tail. He waited in his hole till everybody
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: went to bed. Then he would come out, get something
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: to eat, and return to his hiding place again. Each morning,
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: just after daylight and before anybody was up, he would
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: go into the kitchen and look at himself in the mirror,
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: getting more and more bad tempered meanwhile, because his feathers
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: grew so slowly. Until one afternoon, when the family had
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: gathered in the dining room for tea as usual, who
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: should come into the room but Pedrito. He walked in
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: just as though nothing at all had happened, perched for
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: a moment on a chair back, and then climbed up
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: the tablecloth to get his bread and milk. The people
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: just laughed and wept for joy and clapped their hands,
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: especially to see what pretty feathers the bird had, Pedrito, Why, Pedrito,
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: where in the world have you been? What happened to you?
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: And what pretty pretty feathers you see? They did not
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: know that they were new feathers, and Pedrito, for his part,
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: said not a word. He was not going to tell
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: them anything about it. He just ate one piece of
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: bread and milk after another. Papa, Pedrito, nice, Papa, Papa
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: for Pedrito. Of course, he said a few things like that,
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: but otherwise not a word. That was That's why the
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: farmer was very much surprised the next day when Padito
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: flew down out of a tree top and alighted on
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: his shoulder, chattering and chattering, as though he had something
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: very exciting on his mind. In two minutes, Padriito told
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: him all about it, how, in his joy at the
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: nice weather, he had flown down to the padana, how
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: he had invited the jaguar to tea, and how the
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: jaguar had deceived him and left his tail without a feather,
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: without a feather, a single blessed feather. The parrot repeated
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: enrage at such an indignity, and he ended by asking
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: the farmer to go and shoot that jaguar. It happened
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: that they needed a new mat for the fireplace in
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: the dining room, and the farmer was very glad to
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: hear there was a jaguar in the neighborhood. He went
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: into the house to get his gun and then set
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: out with Padrito toward the river. They agreed that when
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: Padrito saw the jaguar, he would begin to scream and
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: attract the beast's attention. In that way, the man could
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: come up close and get a good shot with his gun,
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: and that is just what happened. Pedrito flew up to
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: a tree top and began to talk as noisily as
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: he could, meanwhile looking in all directions to see if
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: the jaguar were about. Soon, he heard some branches crackling
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: under the tree on the ground, and peering down he
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: saw the two green lights fixed upon him.
• 56:24
  Speaker 3: Nice day, he began, Nice Papa, Papa for Padrito, Your Pa, Pedrito.
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: The jaguar was very cross to see that this same
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: parrot had come around again, and with prettier feathers than before.
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: You will not get away this time, he growled to himself,
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: glaring up at Padrito more fiercely than before. Closer, closer,
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: I'm deaf. I can't hear what you say. And Padrito,
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: as he had done the other time, came down, first
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: one branch and then another, talking all the time at
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: the top of his voice, Papa for Patrito, Nice Papa,
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: at the foot of this tree.
• 57:08
  Speaker 3: You're pa, Patrito at the foot of this tree.
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: The jaguar grew suspicious at these new words, and rising
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: part way on his hind legs, he growled, who is
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: that you're talking too? Why do you say I am
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: at the foot of this tree?
• 57:27
  Speaker 3: Good day, Padrito, Papa Papa for Padrito.
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: Answered the parrot, and he came down one more branch,
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: and still another closer closer growled the jaguar. Pedrito could
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: see that the farmer was stealing up very stealthily with
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: his gun, and he was glad of that. For one
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: more branch and he would be almost in the jaguar's claws. Papa,
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: Papa for Padrito, nice Papa, are you almost ready? He called? Oh, sir,
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: closer growled the jaguar getting ready to spring.
• 58:06
  Speaker 3: Yopa, Patrito, He's ready to jump, Papa Petrito.
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: And the jaguar in fact leaped into the air, but
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: this time Padrito was ready for him. He took lightly
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: to his wings and flew up to the tree top,
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: far out of reach of the terrible claws. The farmer, meanwhile,
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: had been taking careful aim, and just as the jaguar
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: reached the ground, there was a loud report. Nine balls
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: of lead as large as peas entered the heart of
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: the jaguar, who gave one great roar and fell over dead.
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: Padrito was chattering about in great glee because now he
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: could fly around in the forest without fear of being eaten,
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: and his tail feathers would never be torn out again.
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: The farmer, too, was happy, because a jaguar is very
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: hard to find, anyway, and the skin of this one
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: made a very beautiful rug. Indeed, when they got back
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: home again, everybody learned why Pedrito had been away so long,
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: and how he had hidden in the hollow tree to
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: grow his feathers back again. And the children were very
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: proud that their pet had trapped the jaguar so cleverly. Thereafter,
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: there was a happy life in the farmer's home for
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: a long long time. But the parrot never forgot what
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: the jaguar had tried to do to him. In the afternoon,
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: when tea was being served in the dining room, he
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: would go over to the skin lying in front of
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: the fireplace and invite the jaguar to have bread and
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: milk with him.
• 59:33
  Speaker 3: Papa, Nice Papa, Papa for Padrito, Papa for jaguar, Nice Papa.
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: And when everybody laughed, Pedrito would laugh too. End of
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: section three, recording by James K. White, Toula Vista, Section
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: four of South American Jungle Tales by Orasio Kiroga, translated
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: by Arthur Livingstone. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: Recording by James K. White, Section four, The Blind Doe.
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: Once upon a time there was a deer a doe
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: who gave birth to two little deers, and, as is
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: very rare with such animals, the little deers were twins. However,
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: a wildcat ate one of them, and the second, a female,
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: had deliver her childhood without a playmate. She was such
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: a beautiful little creature, nevertheless, that all the mother deers
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: in the forest wished she belonged to them, and to
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: show their affection, they were always nipping gently at her
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: ribs with their lips. Every morning, when the little deer
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: got out of bed, her mother would make her say
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: the catechism which all deers learn when they are babies.
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: One I must smell of each green leaf before I
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: eat it, because some leaves are poisonous. Two I must
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: stop and look carefully up and down the brook before
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: I lower my head to drink, for otherwise an alligator
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: may eat me. Three I must lift my head every
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: half hour and sniff carefully in all directions, otherwise a
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: panther may steal up and catch me. Four I must
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: look ahead of me when I am grazing in a meadow,
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: otherwise a snake may bite me. All good fawns learned
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: this catechism by heart, and when this little deer could
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: say it all by herself, her mother began to let
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: her go away from home alone. One afternoon in summer,
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: when the fawn was wandering over the mountain side looking
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: for the tenderest tufts of grass, she saw a tree
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: with a hollow trunk in front of her. Inside it,
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: a number of small, slate colored bags were hanging. What
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: in the world is that, said the little deer to herself.
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: She had never seen anything of just that kind. Now,
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: deers like people are inclined to be a bit disrespectful
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: towards things they don't understand. Those puffy, slate colored bags
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: seemed to her about the most ridiculous things there were
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: on earth, so she butted them with all her might.
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: She now saw that she had made a great dent
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: in the bags, which began to drip with drops of
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: shining fluid. At the same time, a swarm of reddish
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: flies with narrow waists came out, buzzing around and walking
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: about over their broken nest. The little deer edged nearer curiously.
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: Those red flies did not seem to mind at all,
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: And what about that juicy looking stuff? Carefully gently, the
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: fawn stretched out her head till she was able to
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: touch one of the drops of fluid with the tip
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: of her tongue. What a surprise, What a wonderful surprise
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: for such a little and such an inexperienced deer. She
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: smacked her lips and licked her nose with her tongue,
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: hurrying to lap up all the drops she could find,
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: for they were honey, honey of the sweetest kind. And
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: the red flies were bees. They did not sting because
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: they had no stingers. There are bees like that, you
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: know in South America. Not content with a few drops
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: that were slowly oozing out of the cracks in the bags,
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: the little deer now broke all the nests down and
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 1: ate every bit of the honey in them. Then, leaping
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: and jumping with pride and delight, she hurried home to
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: tell her mother all about it. But the mother deer
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: frowned severely. Look out for bees nests, my child, she
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: exclaimed earnestly. Honey is very good to eat, but it
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: is dangerous to get at it. Keep away from all
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 1: the nests, you see, But bees don't sting, mama. The
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: little deer objected, gleefully. Hornet sting and wasp sting. But bees, no,
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 1: that isn't so, my dear, the mother answered, you had
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: good luck, that's all. Bees are quite as bad as wasps.
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: Now mind me, child, or some day you'll be sorry.
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: All right, mamma, I'll be careful, said the little deer.
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: But the first thing she did the very next morning
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 1: was to take one of the paths that people had
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: made over the mountains. She had figured out that running
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: along in the open, she could cover more ground and
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 1: see the bees nests better. And at last the search
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: of the little deer was successful. She came upon a
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: nest of bees, as she thought, black ones, this time
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: with yellow sashes about their belts, and many of them
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 1: were walking over the outside of the nest. The nest
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: also was of a different color, and much larger than
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: the bags the little deer had found the day before.
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: But such things made no difference to her. If the
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: nest is larger, she concluded, simply, the honey is probably sweeter,
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: and there's more of it. But then she suddenly remembered
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: all that her mother had said. Oh, mother is too afraid.
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 1: All mothers are too afraid. And she finished by giving
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: a lusty butt at the nest in a second or
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 1: two she had bitterly repented of her folly. The bees
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: were ordinary bees, and there were thousands of them. They
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 1: rushed forth from the nest in a great swarm, settled
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: all over the head, neck, and shoulders of the little deer,
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: and even under her belly and on her tail, and
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: they stung her all over, but worst of all about
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: the eyes. There were more than ten stings to each eye.
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 1: The little deer, wild with pain and fright, began to run,
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: screaming away. She ran and ran, but finally she had
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: to stop because she could no longer see where she
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: was going. Her eyes were all swollen, so swollen she
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: could not open them. Trembling with fear and smarting with pain,
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 1: she stopped where she was and began to cry piteously, Mamma, mamma.
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 1: The mother deer was much worried when the afternoon wore
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 1: on and her child did not come home, And at
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 1: last she started out to look for her, following by
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: smell as deers can the tracks of her little one
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: over the hillsides. What was her despair when finally she
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 1: heard the disobedient fawn weeping in the distance, And how
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: much blacker her despair became when she found that the
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: child was blind. Slowly, the two deers started home again,
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: the fawn's nose resting on her mother's hip, and along
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 1: the road all the old bucks and doze came up
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: to examine the little one's eyes and give their opinions
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: as to a cure. The mother dear did not know
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 1: what to do. She had no plasters nor poultices to
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: soothe the pain in her child's eyes. She learned ultimately
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: that across the mountains lived the man man who was
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 1: skillful with remedies. This man was a hunter and traded
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: in venison, but from all reports she concluded that he
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: was quite a kind hearted person. Though the doe shivered
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 1: at the thought of visiting a man who made his
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: living on the slaughter of deer, she was willing to
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 1: risk anything for her offspring. However, she had never met
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 1: the man personally, and she thought it best to ask
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: for a letter of introduction from the anteater, who was
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: supposed to be on very good terms with all the
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: human kind. It was night, and the panthers and wildcats
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 1: were rampant through all the forest, but the mother deer
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 1: did not wait an instant. She covered her little one
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: carefully with branches so that no one could find her,
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: and then made off toward the anteater's house. She went
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 1: so fast and so far that she was faint with
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 1: fatigue when she arrived there, and once on the road
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: she escaped only by merest chance from the fangs of
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 1: a mountain lion. The ant eater was one of the
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: smaller members of his tribe, a yellow little fellow with
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 1: a black cape thrown over his shoulders and reaching down
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 1: to the waist, where it was tied under his belly
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 1: with black strings. Just how or why the anteater became
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: so friendly with the hunter, no one in the forest knew,
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 1: But some day the truth will be known, doubtless. At
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 1: any rate, the poor doe arrived at the house where
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: the anteater lived tan tan Ton. She knocked, panting, Who's that,
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: answered the anteater sleepily. It's me, said the dough, though
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 1: she corrected herself almost immediately and said it is I,
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: A dear, the mother of the twins. I see, said
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: the ant eater. So it's you. Well, what do you want?
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 1: I want you to introduce me to the hunter the fawn?
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 1: My daughter is blind, you don't say, so that little
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 1: fawn that everybody makes so much of. She's a dear
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 1: little thing. I don't have to be asked twice to
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 1: do a favor when that child is concerned. I'll introduce
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: you gladly, but you won't need a letter. Just show
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 1: the man this and he'll do all you ask. The
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: ant heater rummaged around in the leaves for a while,
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 1: and at last stretched his tail out. On the tip
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 1: of it was the head of a snake, completely dried
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 1: and with the poisoned fangs still in it. Thanks ever
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 1: so much, exclaimed the doe. But that man is a
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 1: venison hunter. Do you think this is all I need? Quite?
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 1: The anteater averred, you are a very kind hearted anteater.
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 1: The doe replied, her eyes filling with tears, but she
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 1: did not prolong the conversation. It was getting to be
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 1: very late and she had to be at the hunter's
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 1: lodge by daybreak. She hurried back to her house and
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 1: got the fawn, who still lay there weeping in her bed.
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 1: Together they made their way toward the village where the
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 1: hunter lived. They stole along very softly, keeping close to
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 1: the walls of the houses so that the dogs would
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 1: not see nor hear them. At the door of the
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 1: hunter's cottage. The mother knocked loudly, ton, ton, ton, and
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 1: the little deer knocked as loudly as she could. Ta
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 1: ta t who's there? A voice called from within. It's us,
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 1: said the fawn. It's we, corrected the mother. We are
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 1: friends of the anteater and we have the snake's head.
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 1: I see, said the hunter, opening the door. What can
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 1: I do for you, my daughter? This little fawn here
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 1: is blind. Can you help her? And the mother deer
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 1: told the whole story about her child, and the bees
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 1: hum said the man. Just let me see what ails
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: this nice young lady. Re entering the cottage, The hunter
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 1: soon came back with a rather high stool on which
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 1: he set the fawn in such a manner that he
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 1: could examine her eyes without bending over. Then he took
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 1: out a big lins and began to look at the stings,
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 1: while the mother deer stood by, holding a lantern around
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 1: her neck so that the doctor could see better, for
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 1: the sun had not yet risen. Oh, there's nothing to
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 1: worry about, the hunter said to the fawn parent, helping
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 1: her little one out of the chair. It's only a
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 1: matter of time and care wrap her head up and
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 1: keep a bandage with this ointment across her eyes. Then
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 1: keep her in the dark for twenty days. After that,
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 1: have her wear these yellow glasses for a week or two,
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 1: and by that time she will be all right. Thanks, many,
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 1: many thanks, said the mother deer warmly and gratefully. And now, sir,
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 1: how much do I owe you? Nothing at all, Nothing
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 1: at all, madam, the hunter replied with a smile. But
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 1: one thing more, look out for the dogs in the
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 1: next house. A man lives there who keeps hounds, especially
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 1: for chasing deer. At this news, the mother deer and
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 1: her child were so scared they hardly dared breathe, and
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 1: as they went away, they walked on tiptoe and stopped
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 1: every few feet. Even at that the dogs heard them
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 1: and gave chase for nearly a mile into the forest,
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 1: but the mother deer found a narrow path opening into
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 1: the bush where the blind fawn could run quite safely,
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 1: and they made good their escape. The little deer got well,
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 1: just as the hunter had said she would. Though the
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 1: care and trouble had cost the mother to keep her
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 1: fawn shut up for twenty long days inside a hollow tree,
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 1: she only knew inside there you could not have seen
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 1: your hand before your face. But at last one morning
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 1: the mother deer brushed aside the branches she had woven
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 1: across the hole in the tree so tightly as to
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: keep out all light, and the fawn, now with the
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 1: yellow glasses on her nose, came out into the broad day. Oh,
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 1: I can see now, mamma, I can see all right.
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 1: And the mother, dear to tell the truth, had to
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 1: go and hide her head in a clump of bushes
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 1: to conceal the tears of joy that came to her
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 1: eyes when she saw her little one cured at last.
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 1: In two weeks, the glasses were laid aside. As time
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 1: wore on, the fawn, though happy to be quite herself again,
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 1: began to grow sad. She was anxious to repay the
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 1: hunter for his kindness to her, and she could think
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 1: of no possible way of doing it. One day, however,
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 1: an idea occurred to her. As she was trotting along
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 1: the shore of a pond. She came upon a feather
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 1: which a blue heron had let fall.
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 2: There.
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 1: I wonder if that good man would like it, she thought,
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 1: and she picked it up. Then, one night, when it
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 1: was raining hard, and the dogs would probably be under cover.
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 1: She started out for the hunter's cottage. The man was
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 1: reading in his bedroom, feeling quite cozy besides, for he
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 1: had just completed a thatched roof for his cabin when
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 1: the rain began. Now he was quite safe and dry,
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 1: out of reach of the storm.
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 2: Ton Ton Ton.
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 1: When he opened the door, the little deer, whom he
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 1: had treated, and of whom he had often thought since then,
• 1:14:35
  Speaker 1: was standing there in the rain, with the heron's plume,
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 1: all wet and drooping in her mouth. Here is something
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 1: I have brought for you, the fawn explained, but the
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 1: hunter began to laugh. The little deer went off home
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 1: in great shame and sorrow. She thought the man had
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 1: laughed in ridicule of her poor gift. So thereafter she
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 1: went looking for a better, bigger feather to give her benefactor.
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 1: And this time she found some bombs that were truly
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 1: splendid ones, and she was careful to keep them clean
• 1:15:04
  Speaker 1: and dry. Again, she went back one night to the
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 1: hunter's cabin, and this time he did not laugh. He
• 1:15:12
  Speaker 1: was a courteous, polite man, and he understood that the
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 1: other time he had hurt his little friend's feelings by
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 1: laughing at her. Instead, he now invited her indoors, drew
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 1: the high chair up to the table, and gave her
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 1: a saucerful of honey.
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 2: Gobble gobble.
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 1: The little deer lapped the sweet up in mad delight.
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 1: From that time on the two became great friends. The
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 1: fawn spent a great deal of her time collecting heron plumes,
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 1: which the man sold for a large sum of money,
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 1: and every time she came in with a feather, the
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 1: hunter gave her a jar of honey, and occasionally he
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 1: offered her a cigar, which the little deer ate, but
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 1: of course did not smoke. Smoking is bad even for deers.
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 1: Whole nights, the two friends thus spent together talking in
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 1: front of the open fire while the wind was howling outside.
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 1: For the deer made her visits only in stormy weather,
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 1: when dogs would be sure not to be about in
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 1: a short time. Whenever the skies were dark and gave
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 1: promise of a bad night, the hunter began to expect
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 1: these visits. He would light a lamp, set a jar
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 1: of honey on the table, take out a book, and
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 1: begin to read, waiting for the tan tant of the
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 1: little deer, who remained his loyal friend all her life.
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 1: End of section four, recording by James K. White, Chula Vista.
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 1: Section five of South American Jungle Tales by Orasio Kidoga,
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 1: translated by Arthur Livingstone. This LibriVox recording is in the
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 1: public domain. Recording by James K. White, Section five The alligator.
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 1: It was a very big river in a region of
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 1: South America that had never been visited by white men,
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 1: and in it lived many, many alligators, perhaps a hundred,
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 1: perhaps a thousand. For dinner they ate fish which they
• 1:17:18
  Speaker 1: caught in the stream, and for supper they ate deer
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 1: and other animals that came down to the water side
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 1: to drink. On hot afternoons in summer, they stretched out
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 1: and sunned themselves on the bank, but they liked nights
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 1: when the moon was shining best of all. Then they
• 1:17:34
  Speaker 1: swam out into the river and sported and played, lashing
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 1: the water to foam with their tails while the spray
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 1: ran off their beautiful skins in all the colors of
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 1: the rainbow. These alligators had lived quite happy lives for
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 1: a long long time. But at last, one afternoon, when
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 1: they were all sleeping on the sand, snoring and snoring.
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 1: One alligator woke up and cocked his ears. Alligators cocked
• 1:18:00
  Speaker 1: their ears. He listened and listened, and to be sure, faintly,
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 1: and from a great distance, came a sound, chog choke chog.
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 2: Hey.
• 1:18:12
  Speaker 1: The alligator called to the alligator sleeping next to him, Hey,
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 1: wake up, danger, Danger of what, asked the other, opening
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 1: his eyes sleepily and getting up. I don't know, replied
• 1:18:26
  Speaker 1: the first alligator. That's a noise I never heard before.
• 1:18:30
  Speaker 3: Listen.
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 1: The other alligator listened, chog chog chog in great alarm.
• 1:18:37
  Speaker 1: The two alligators went calling up and down the riverbank, danger, danger,
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 1: and all their sisters and brothers and mothers and fathers
• 1:18:46
  Speaker 1: and uncles and aunts woke up and began running this
• 1:18:49
  Speaker 1: way and that with their tails curled up in the air.
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 1: But the excitement did not serve to calm their fears.
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 1: Chog chog, chog. The noise was growing louder every moment,
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 1: and at last, away off down the stream, they could
• 1:19:06
  Speaker 1: see something moving along the surface of the river, leaving
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 1: a trail of gray smoke behind it and beating the
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 1: water on either side to foam.
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 2: Shush, shush, shush.
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 1: The alligators looked at each other in the greatest astonishment.
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 1: What on earth is that? But there was one old alligator,
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 1: the wisest and most experienced of them all. He was
• 1:19:29
  Speaker 1: so old that only two sound teeth were left in
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 1: his jaws, one in the upper jaw and one in
• 1:19:36
  Speaker 1: the lower jaw. Once, also, when he was a boy
• 1:19:40
  Speaker 1: fond of adventure, he had made a trip down the
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 1: river all the way to the sea.
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 2: I know what it.
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 1: Is, said he, It's our wail. Whils are big fish.
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 1: They shoot water up through their noses and it falls
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 1: down on them behind. At this news, the little alligators
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 1: began to scream at the top of their lungs.
• 1:20:06
  Speaker 2: It's a whale, it's a whale, it's a whale.
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 1: And they made for the water, intending to duck out
• 1:20:13
  Speaker 1: of sight. But the big alligator cuffed with his tail
• 1:20:17
  Speaker 1: a little alligator that was screaming nearby with his mouth
• 1:20:20
  Speaker 1: open wide dry up, said he, there's nothing to be
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 1: afraid of. I know all about whales. Whales are the
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 1: afraidest people there are. And the little alligators stopped their noise,
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 1: but they grew frightened again. A moment afterwards, the gray
• 1:20:39
  Speaker 1: smoke suddenly turned to an inky black and the chush,
• 1:20:42
  Speaker 1: shush shush was now so loud that all the alligators
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 1: took to the water with only their eyes and the
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 1: tips of their noses showing at the surface. Choash, choash, choash.
• 1:20:55
  Speaker 1: The strange monster came rapidly up the stream. The alligator
• 1:21:00
  Speaker 1: saw it go, crashing past them, belching great clouds of
• 1:21:03
  Speaker 1: smoke from the middle of its back, and splashing into
• 1:21:06
  Speaker 1: the water heavily with the big revolving things it had
• 1:21:10
  Speaker 1: on either side. It was a steamer, the first steamer
• 1:21:15
  Speaker 1: that had ever made its way up the Padanha. Shush, shush, shush.
• 1:21:20
  Speaker 1: It seemed to be getting further away. Chug chug, chug.
• 1:21:25
  Speaker 1: It had disappeared from view. One by one, the alligators
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 1: climbed up out of the water onto the bank again.
• 1:21:33
  Speaker 1: They were all quite cross with the old alligator, who
• 1:21:36
  Speaker 1: had told them wrongly that it was a whale. It
• 1:21:40
  Speaker 1: was not a whale, they shouted in his ear, for
• 1:21:43
  Speaker 1: he was rather hard of hearing. Well, what was it
• 1:21:47
  Speaker 1: that just went by? The old alligator then explained that
• 1:21:51
  Speaker 1: it was a steamboat full of fire, and that the
• 1:21:54
  Speaker 1: alligators would all die if the boat continued to go
• 1:21:57
  Speaker 1: up and down the river. The other alligators only laughed. However,
• 1:22:01
  Speaker 1: why would the alligators die if the boat kept going
• 1:22:04
  Speaker 1: up and down the river? It had passed by without
• 1:22:07
  Speaker 1: so much as speaking to them? That old alligator didn't
• 1:22:11
  Speaker 1: really know so much as he pretended to. And since
• 1:22:14
  Speaker 1: they were very hungry, they all went fishing in the stream.
• 1:22:18
  Speaker 1: But alas there was not a fish to be found,
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 1: the steamboat had frightened every single one of them away.
• 1:22:25
  Speaker 1: Well what did I tell you, said the old alligator.
• 1:22:30
  Speaker 1: You see, we haven't anything left to eat. All the
• 1:22:34
  Speaker 1: fish have been frightened away. However, let's just wait till tomorrow.
• 1:22:41
  Speaker 1: Perhaps the boat won't come back again. In that case,
• 1:22:45
  Speaker 1: the fish will get over their fright and come back
• 1:22:48
  Speaker 1: so that we can eat them. But the next day
• 1:22:52
  Speaker 1: the steamboat came, crashing by again on its way back
• 1:22:55
  Speaker 1: down the river, spouting black smoke as it had done before,
• 1:22:59
  Speaker 1: and setting the whole river boiling with its paddle wheels. Well,
• 1:23:05
  Speaker 1: exclaimed the alligators, what do you think of that? The
• 1:23:08
  Speaker 1: boat came yesterday, the boat came today, The boat will
• 1:23:12
  Speaker 1: come tomorrow. The fish will stay away, and nothing will
• 1:23:16
  Speaker 1: come down here at night to drink. We are done
• 1:23:19
  Speaker 1: for But an idea occurred to one of the brighter alligators.
• 1:23:25
  Speaker 1: Let's damn the river. He proposed, the steamboat won't be
• 1:23:28
  Speaker 1: able to climb a dam. That's the talk, that's the talk,
• 1:23:33
  Speaker 1: A dam, a dam. Let's build a dam. And the
• 1:23:37
  Speaker 1: alligators all made for the shore as fast as they could.
• 1:23:42
  Speaker 1: They went up into the woods along the bank and
• 1:23:45
  Speaker 1: began to cut down trees of the hardest wood they
• 1:23:47
  Speaker 1: could find, walnut and mahogany mostly. They felled more than
• 1:23:52
  Speaker 1: ten thousand of them all together, sawing the trunks through
• 1:23:55
  Speaker 1: with a kind of saw that alligators have on the
• 1:23:58
  Speaker 1: tops of their tails. They dragged the trees down into
• 1:24:01
  Speaker 1: the water and stood them up about a yard apart,
• 1:24:04
  Speaker 1: all the way across the river, driving the pointed ends
• 1:24:08
  Speaker 1: deep into the mud and weaving the branches together. No steamboat,
• 1:24:13
  Speaker 1: big or little would ever be able to pass that dam.
• 1:24:17
  Speaker 1: No one would frighten the fish away again. They would
• 1:24:20
  Speaker 1: have a good dinner the following day and every day,
• 1:24:23
  Speaker 1: And since it was late at night by the time
• 1:24:25
  Speaker 1: the dam was done, they all fell sound asleep on
• 1:24:29
  Speaker 1: the river bank. Chog choke, chog, shush, shush, hush, chwash
• 1:24:35
  Speaker 1: hwash hwash. They were still asleep the next day when
• 1:24:39
  Speaker 1: the boat came up, but the alligators barely opened their
• 1:24:42
  Speaker 1: eyes and then tried to go to sleep again. What
• 1:24:46
  Speaker 1: did they care about the boat? It could make all
• 1:24:48
  Speaker 1: the noise it wanted, but it would never get by
• 1:24:51
  Speaker 1: the dam, and that is what happened. Soon the noise
• 1:24:56
  Speaker 1: from the boat stopped, the men who were steering on
• 1:24:59
  Speaker 1: the took out their spyglasses and began to study the
• 1:25:03
  Speaker 1: strange obstruction that had been thrown up across the river. Finally,
• 1:25:07
  Speaker 1: a small boat was sent to look into it more closely.
• 1:25:11
  Speaker 1: Only then did the alligators get up from where they
• 1:25:14
  Speaker 1: were sleeping, run down into the water, and swim out
• 1:25:17
  Speaker 1: behind the dam. Where they lay floating and looking downstream
• 1:25:20
  Speaker 1: between the piles, they could not help laughing, nevertheless at
• 1:25:25
  Speaker 1: the joke they had played on the steamboat. The small
• 1:25:28
  Speaker 1: boat came up and the men in it saw how
• 1:25:31
  Speaker 1: the alligators had made a dam across the river. They
• 1:25:34
  Speaker 1: went back to the steamer, but soon after came rowing
• 1:25:37
  Speaker 1: up toward the dam again. Hey you alligators, what can
• 1:25:43
  Speaker 1: we do for you? Answered the alligators, sticking their heads
• 1:25:46
  Speaker 1: through between the piles in the dam. That dam is
• 1:25:51
  Speaker 1: in our way, said the men. Tell us something we
• 1:25:54
  Speaker 1: don't know, answered the alligators. But we can't get by,
• 1:25:59
  Speaker 1: I'll say so, Well take the old thing out of
• 1:26:02
  Speaker 1: the way, no, sir ree. The men in the boat
• 1:26:07
  Speaker 1: talked it over for a while, and then they called, alligators,
• 1:26:12
  Speaker 1: what can we do for you? Will you take the
• 1:26:15
  Speaker 1: dam away? No? No, no, very well, see you later.
• 1:26:25
  Speaker 1: The later the better, said the alligators. The rowboat went
• 1:26:30
  Speaker 1: back to the steamer, while the alligators, as happy as
• 1:26:33
  Speaker 1: could be, clapped their tails as loud as they could
• 1:26:36
  Speaker 1: on the water. No boat could ever get by that
• 1:26:40
  Speaker 1: dam and drive the fish away again. But the next
• 1:26:43
  Speaker 1: day the steamboat returned, and when the alligators looked at it,
• 1:26:48
  Speaker 1: they could not say a word. From their surprise. It
• 1:26:51
  Speaker 1: was not the same boat at all, but a larger one,
• 1:26:54
  Speaker 1: painted gray like a mouse. How many steamboats were there anyway,
• 1:26:59
  Speaker 1: and this one probably would want to pass the dam?
• 1:27:03
  Speaker 1: Well just let it try, No, sir, no steamboat, little
• 1:27:09
  Speaker 1: or big would ever get through that dam. They shall
• 1:27:12
  Speaker 1: not pass, said the alligators, each taking up his station
• 1:27:16
  Speaker 1: behind the piles and the dam. The new boat, like
• 1:27:20
  Speaker 1: the other one, stopped some distance below the dam, and
• 1:27:23
  Speaker 1: again a little boat came rowing toward them. This time
• 1:27:27
  Speaker 1: there were eight sailors in it with one officer. The
• 1:27:31
  Speaker 1: officer shouted, hey, you alligators, what's the matter? Answered the alligators.
• 1:27:39
  Speaker 1: Going to get that dam out of there? No, no, no,
• 1:27:47
  Speaker 1: very well, said the officer. In that case, we shall
• 1:27:51
  Speaker 1: have to shoot it down. Shoot it up if you
• 1:27:54
  Speaker 1: want to, said the alligators, and the boat returned to
• 1:27:59
  Speaker 1: the steamer. But now this mouse gray steamboat was not
• 1:28:03
  Speaker 1: an ordinary steamboat. It was a warship with armor plate
• 1:28:08
  Speaker 1: and terribly powerful guns. The old alligator who had made
• 1:28:12
  Speaker 1: the trip to the river mouth suddenly remembered and just
• 1:28:16
  Speaker 1: in time to shout to the other alligators, duck.
• 1:28:19
  Speaker 2: For your lives.
• 1:28:20
  Speaker 1: Duck, she's going to shoot keep down deep underwater. The
• 1:28:26
  Speaker 1: alligators dived, all at the same time and headed for
• 1:28:30
  Speaker 1: the shore, where they halted, keeping all their bodies out
• 1:28:33
  Speaker 1: of sight except for their noses and their eyes. A
• 1:28:37
  Speaker 1: great cloud of flame and smoke burst from the vessel's side,
• 1:28:41
  Speaker 1: followed by a deafening report. An immense solid shot hurtled
• 1:28:45
  Speaker 1: through the air and struck the dam exactly in the middle.
• 1:28:49
  Speaker 1: Two or three tree trunks were cut away into splinters
• 1:28:53
  Speaker 1: and drifted off downstream. Another shot, a third, and finally
• 1:28:58
  Speaker 1: a fourth, each tearing a great hole in the dam.
• 1:29:02
  Speaker 1: Finally the piles were entirely destroyed. Not a tree, not
• 1:29:07
  Speaker 1: a splinter, not a piece of bark was left. And
• 1:29:10
  Speaker 1: the alligators, still sitting with their eyes and noses just
• 1:29:14
  Speaker 1: out of water, saw the warship come steaming by and
• 1:29:18
  Speaker 1: blowing its whistle and derision at them. Then the alligators
• 1:29:22
  Speaker 1: came out on the bank and held a council of war.
• 1:29:26
  Speaker 1: Our dam was not strong enough, said they, We must
• 1:29:30
  Speaker 1: make a new and much thicker one. So they worked
• 1:29:33
  Speaker 1: again all that afternoon and night, cutting down the very
• 1:29:37
  Speaker 1: biggest trees they could find, and making a much better
• 1:29:41
  Speaker 1: dam than they had built before. When the gunboat appeared
• 1:29:45
  Speaker 1: the next day, they were sleeping soundly and had to
• 1:29:48
  Speaker 1: hurry to get behind the piles of the dam. By
• 1:29:51
  Speaker 1: the time the rowboat arrived there, Hey, alligators called the
• 1:29:56
  Speaker 1: same officer. See who's here again, said the alligators, jeeringly.
• 1:30:02
  Speaker 1: Get that new dam out of there, never in the world. Well,
• 1:30:08
  Speaker 1: we'll blow it up the way we did the other.
• 1:30:11
  Speaker 1: Blaze away, and good luck to you. You see, the
• 1:30:16
  Speaker 1: alligators talked so big because they were sure the dam
• 1:30:19
  Speaker 1: they had made this time would hold up against the
• 1:30:21
  Speaker 1: most terrible cannon balls in the world, and the sailors
• 1:30:25
  Speaker 1: must have thought so too, for after they had fired
• 1:30:28
  Speaker 1: the first shot, a tremendous explosion occurred in the dam.
• 1:30:32
  Speaker 1: The gunboat was using shells, which burst among the timbers
• 1:30:36
  Speaker 1: of the dam and broke the thickest trees into tiny,
• 1:30:39
  Speaker 1: tiny bits. A second shell exploded right near the first,
• 1:30:43
  Speaker 1: and the third near the second. So the shots went
• 1:30:46
  Speaker 1: all along the dam, each tearing away a long strip
• 1:30:49
  Speaker 1: of it till nothing, nothing, nothing was left again. The
• 1:30:54
  Speaker 1: warship came steaming by closer in toward shore on this occasion,
• 1:31:00
  Speaker 1: so that the sailors could make fun of the alligators
• 1:31:02
  Speaker 1: by putting their hands to their mouths and hollowing. So
• 1:31:06
  Speaker 1: that's it, said the alligators, climbing up out of the water.
• 1:31:10
  Speaker 1: We must all die, because the steamboats will keep coming
• 1:31:13
  Speaker 1: and going up and down, and leaving us not a
• 1:31:15
  Speaker 1: fish in the world to eat. The littlest alligators were
• 1:31:20
  Speaker 1: already whimpering, for they had had no dinner for three days.
• 1:31:24
  Speaker 1: And it was a crowd of very sad alligators that
• 1:31:27
  Speaker 1: gathered on the river shore to hear what the old
• 1:31:29
  Speaker 1: alligator now had to say, we have only one hope left.
• 1:31:35
  Speaker 1: He began, we must go and see the sturgeon. When
• 1:31:41
  Speaker 1: I was a boy, I took that trip down to
• 1:31:43
  Speaker 1: the sea along with him. He liked the salt water
• 1:31:47
  Speaker 1: better than I did, and went quite a way out
• 1:31:50
  Speaker 1: into the ocean. There he saw a sea fight between
• 1:31:54
  Speaker 1: two of these boats, and he brought home a torpedo
• 1:31:58
  Speaker 1: that had failed to explode. Suppose we go and ask
• 1:32:02
  Speaker 1: him to give it to us. It is true the
• 1:32:05
  Speaker 1: sturgeon has never liked us alligators, but I got along
• 1:32:09
  Speaker 1: with him pretty well myself. He is a good fellow
• 1:32:13
  Speaker 1: at bottom, and surely he will not want to see
• 1:32:16
  Speaker 1: us all starve. The fact was that some years before
• 1:32:22
  Speaker 1: an alligator had eaten one of the sturgeon's favorite grandchildren,
• 1:32:26
  Speaker 1: and for that reason the sturgeon had refused ever since
• 1:32:29
  Speaker 1: to call on the alligators or receive visits from them. Nevertheless,
• 1:32:34
  Speaker 1: the alligators now trooped off in a body to the
• 1:32:37
  Speaker 1: big cave under the bank of the river, where they
• 1:32:40
  Speaker 1: knew the sturgeon stayed with his torpedo beside him. There
• 1:32:45
  Speaker 1: are sturgeons as much as six feet long, you know,
• 1:32:48
  Speaker 1: and this one with the torpedo? Was of that kind,
• 1:32:52
  Speaker 1: mister Sturgeon. Mister Sturgeon called the alligators at the entrance
• 1:32:57
  Speaker 1: of the cave. No one of them dared go in,
• 1:33:00
  Speaker 1: you see, on account of that matter of the Sturgeon's grandchild.
• 1:33:05
  Speaker 2: Who is it?
• 1:33:07
  Speaker 1: Answered the sturgeon, We're the alligators. The latter replied in
• 1:33:12
  Speaker 1: a chorus.
• 1:33:14
  Speaker 2: I have nothing to do with alligators.
• 1:33:17
  Speaker 1: Grumbled the sturgeon crossly. But now the old alligator with
• 1:33:21
  Speaker 1: the two teeth stepped forward and said, why, hello, Sturgey.
• 1:33:27
  Speaker 1: Don't you remember Ali, your old friend that took that
• 1:33:31
  Speaker 1: trip down the river when we were boys.
• 1:33:35
  Speaker 4: Well, well, where have you been keeping yourself all these years?
• 1:33:41
  Speaker 1: Said the sturgeon, surprised and pleased to hear his old
• 1:33:44
  Speaker 1: friend's voice.
• 1:33:46
  Speaker 4: Sorry, I didn't know it was you. How goes it?
• 1:33:51
  Speaker 4: What can I do for you?
• 1:33:54
  Speaker 1: We've come to ask you for that torpedo you found.
• 1:33:58
  Speaker 1: Remember she there's a warship keeps coming up and down
• 1:34:03
  Speaker 1: our river, scaring all the fish away. She's a whopper,
• 1:34:08
  Speaker 1: I'll tell you. Armor plate guns the whole thing. We
• 1:34:14
  Speaker 1: made one, damn, and she knocked it down. We made
• 1:34:18
  Speaker 1: another and she blew it up. The fish have all
• 1:34:22
  Speaker 1: gone away, and we haven't had a bite to eat
• 1:34:24
  Speaker 1: and near onto a week. Now, you give us your
• 1:34:29
  Speaker 1: torpedo and we'll do the rest. The sturgeon sat thinking
• 1:34:33
  Speaker 1: for a long time, scratching his chin with one of
• 1:34:37
  Speaker 1: his spins. At last he answered.
• 1:34:41
  Speaker 4: As for the torpedo, all right, you can have it
• 1:34:46
  Speaker 4: in spite of what you did to my eldest sons
• 1:34:48
  Speaker 4: first born.
• 1:34:50
  Speaker 2: But there's one trouble who knows how to work the thing.
• 1:34:56
  Speaker 1: The alligators were all silent. Not one of them had
• 1:35:00
  Speaker 1: ever seen a torpedo. Well, said the sturgeon proudly.
• 1:35:05
  Speaker 2: I can see. I'll have to go with you myself.
• 1:35:09
  Speaker 4: I've lived next to that torpedo a long time. I
• 1:35:14
  Speaker 4: know all about torpedoes. The first task was to bring
• 1:35:19
  Speaker 4: the torpedo down to the dam. The alligators got into line,
• 1:35:23
  Speaker 4: the one behind taking into his mouth the tail of
• 1:35:26
  Speaker 4: the one in front. When the line was formed, it
• 1:35:29
  Speaker 4: was fully a quarter of a mile long. The sturgeon
• 1:35:33
  Speaker 4: pushed the torpedo out into the current and got under
• 1:35:36
  Speaker 4: it so as to hold it up near the top
• 1:35:38
  Speaker 4: of the water on his back. Then he took the
• 1:35:41
  Speaker 4: tail of the last alligator in his teeth and gave
• 1:35:44
  Speaker 4: the signal to go ahead. The sturgeon kept the torpedo
• 1:35:47
  Speaker 4: afloat while the alligators towed him along. In this way,
• 1:35:51
  Speaker 4: they went so fast that a wide wake followed on
• 1:35:55
  Speaker 4: after the torpedo, and by the next morning they were
• 1:35:58
  Speaker 4: back at the place where the dam was made. As
• 1:36:02
  Speaker 4: the little alligators who had stayed at home reported, the
• 1:36:05
  Speaker 4: warship had already gone upstream. But this pleased the others
• 1:36:09
  Speaker 4: all the more. Now they would build a new dam,
• 1:36:13
  Speaker 4: stronger than ever before, and catch the steamer in a
• 1:36:17
  Speaker 4: trap so that it would never get home again. They
• 1:36:21
  Speaker 4: worked all that day and all the next night, making
• 1:36:24
  Speaker 4: a thick, almost solid dyke, with barely enough room between
• 1:36:28
  Speaker 4: the piles for the alligators to stick their heads through.
• 1:36:33
  Speaker 4: They had just finished when the gunboat came into view again.
• 1:36:37
  Speaker 4: The rowboat approached with the eight men and their officer.
• 1:36:41
  Speaker 4: The alligators crowded behind the dam in great excitement, moving
• 1:36:45
  Speaker 4: their paws to hold their own with the current. For
• 1:36:48
  Speaker 4: this time they were downstream. Hey, alligators, called the officer. Well,
• 1:36:55
  Speaker 4: answered the alligators, still another dam. If at first you
• 1:37:00
  Speaker 4: don't succeed, try try again. Get that damn out of there.
• 1:37:07
  Speaker 4: No sir, you won't. We won't very well. Now, you
• 1:37:15
  Speaker 4: alligators just listen. If you won't be reasonable, we're gonna
• 1:37:20
  Speaker 4: knock this damn down too. But to save you the
• 1:37:23
  Speaker 4: trouble of building a fourth, we're gonna shoot every blessed
• 1:37:27
  Speaker 4: alligator around here, Yes, every single last alligator, women and children,
• 1:37:33
  Speaker 4: big ones, little ones, fat ones, lean ones, and even
• 1:37:37
  Speaker 4: that old kadure sitting there with only two teeth left
• 1:37:40
  Speaker 4: in his jaws. The old alligator understood that the officer
• 1:37:44
  Speaker 4: was trying to insult him with that reference to his
• 1:37:47
  Speaker 4: two teeth, and he answered, young man, what you say
• 1:37:53
  Speaker 4: is true.
• 1:37:54
  Speaker 1: I have only two teeth left, not counting one or
• 1:37:58
  Speaker 1: two others that are broken. But do you know what
• 1:38:02
  Speaker 1: those two teeth are going to eat for dinner? As
• 1:38:07
  Speaker 1: he said this, the old alligator opened his mouth wide, wide, wide.
• 1:38:13
  Speaker 1: Well what are they going to eat? Asked one of
• 1:38:16
  Speaker 1: the sailors, A little dude of a naval officer, I
• 1:38:20
  Speaker 1: see in a boat over there, And the old alligator
• 1:38:24
  Speaker 1: dived under water and disappeared from view. Meantime, the sturgeon
• 1:38:29
  Speaker 1: had brought the torpedo to the very center of the dam,
• 1:38:32
  Speaker 1: where four alligators were holding it. Fast to the river bottom,
• 1:38:36
  Speaker 1: waiting for orders to bring it up to the top
• 1:38:38
  Speaker 1: of the water. The other alligators had gathered along the
• 1:38:41
  Speaker 1: shore with their noses and eyes alone in sight. As usual,
• 1:38:46
  Speaker 1: the rowboat went back to the ship. When he saw
• 1:38:50
  Speaker 1: the men climbing aboard, the sturgeon went down to his torpedo.
• 1:38:54
  Speaker 1: Suddenly there was a loud detonation. The warship had begun firing,
• 1:38:59
  Speaker 1: and the first shell struck and exploded in the middle
• 1:39:02
  Speaker 1: of the dam. A great gap opened in it. No no,
• 1:39:09
  Speaker 1: called the sturgeon sharply, on seeing that there was room
• 1:39:12
  Speaker 1: for the torpedo to go through.
• 1:39:15
  Speaker 2: Let her go, Let her go.
• 1:39:19
  Speaker 1: As the torpedo came to the surface, the sturgeon steered
• 1:39:22
  Speaker 1: it to the opening in the dam, took aim hurriedly
• 1:39:24
  Speaker 1: with one eye closed, and pulled at the trigger of
• 1:39:27
  Speaker 1: the torpedo with his teeth. The propeller of the torpedo
• 1:39:32
  Speaker 1: began to revolve, and it started off upstream toward the gunboat.
• 1:39:36
  Speaker 1: And it was high time. At that instant. A second
• 1:39:40
  Speaker 1: shot exploded in the dam, tearing away another large section
• 1:39:45
  Speaker 1: from the wake. The torpedo left behind it in the water.
• 1:39:48
  Speaker 1: The men on the vessel saw the danger they were in,
• 1:39:51
  Speaker 1: but it was too late to do anything about it.
• 1:39:55
  Speaker 1: The torpedo struck the ship in the middle and went off.
• 1:39:59
  Speaker 1: You can never guess the terrible noise that torpedo made.
• 1:40:03
  Speaker 1: It blew the warship into fifteen thousand million pieces, tossing
• 1:40:07
  Speaker 1: guns and smokestacks and shells and rowboats everything hundreds and
• 1:40:13
  Speaker 1: hundreds of yards away. The alligators all screamed with triumph
• 1:40:18
  Speaker 1: and made as fast as they could for the dam.
• 1:40:21
  Speaker 1: Down through the opening, bits of wood came floating, with
• 1:40:25
  Speaker 1: a number of sailors swimming as hard as they could
• 1:40:27
  Speaker 1: for the shore. As the men passed through, the alligators
• 1:40:31
  Speaker 1: put their paws to their mouths and hallowed, as the
• 1:40:35
  Speaker 1: men had done to them three days before. They decided
• 1:40:39
  Speaker 1: not to eat a single one of the sailors, though
• 1:40:42
  Speaker 1: some of them deserved it without a doubt, except that
• 1:40:45
  Speaker 1: when a man dressed in a blue uniform with gold
• 1:40:48
  Speaker 1: braid came by, the old alligator jumped into the water
• 1:40:52
  Speaker 1: off the dam and snap snap ate him in two mouthfuls.
• 1:40:57
  Speaker 1: Who was that man? Asked dan ignorant young alligator who
• 1:41:02
  Speaker 1: never learned his lessons in school and never knew what
• 1:41:05
  Speaker 1: was going on. It's the officer of the boat answered
• 1:41:09
  Speaker 1: the sturgeon, my old friend, ally said he was going
• 1:41:13
  Speaker 1: to eat him, and eating him he has. The alligators
• 1:41:19
  Speaker 1: tore down the rest of the dam because they knew
• 1:41:21
  Speaker 1: that no boats would be coming by that way again.
• 1:41:25
  Speaker 1: The sturgeon, who had quite fallen in love with the
• 1:41:27
  Speaker 1: gold lace of the officer, asked that it be given
• 1:41:30
  Speaker 1: him in payment for the use of his torpedo. The
• 1:41:33
  Speaker 1: alligator said he might have it for the trouble of
• 1:41:36
  Speaker 1: picking it out of the old alligator's mouth, where it
• 1:41:38
  Speaker 1: had caught on the two teeth. They gave him also
• 1:41:42
  Speaker 1: the officer's belt and sword. The sturgeon put the belt
• 1:41:45
  Speaker 1: on just behind his front fence and buckled the sword
• 1:41:48
  Speaker 1: to it. Thus togged out. He swam up and down
• 1:41:53
  Speaker 1: for more than an hour in front of the assembled alligators,
• 1:41:56
  Speaker 1: who admired his beautiful spotted skin as something almost as
• 1:42:00
  Speaker 1: pretty as the coral snakes, and to open their mouths
• 1:42:04
  Speaker 1: wide at the splendor of his uniform. Finally, they escorted
• 1:42:09
  Speaker 1: him in honor back to his cave under the river bank,
• 1:42:12
  Speaker 1: thanking him over and over again and giving him three
• 1:42:15
  Speaker 1: cheers as they went off. When they returned to their
• 1:42:19
  Speaker 1: usual place, they found the fish had already returned. The
• 1:42:24
  Speaker 1: next day, another steamboat came by, but the alligators did
• 1:42:28
  Speaker 1: not care, because the fish were getting used to it
• 1:42:31
  Speaker 1: by this time and seemed not to be afraid. Since then,
• 1:42:36
  Speaker 1: the boats have been going back and forth all the
• 1:42:38
  Speaker 1: time carrying oranges, and the alligators opened their eyes when
• 1:42:43
  Speaker 1: they hear the chug chug chug of a steamboat, and
• 1:42:47
  Speaker 1: laugh at the thought of how scared they were the
• 1:42:49
  Speaker 1: first time, and of how they sank the warship. But
• 1:42:54
  Speaker 1: no warship has ever gone up the river since the
• 1:42:56
  Speaker 1: old alligator ate the officer end of section five, recording
• 1:43:03
  Speaker 1: by James K. White, Chula Vista, Section six of South
• 1:43:13
  Speaker 1: American Jungle Tales by Oracio Kiroga, translated by Arthur Livingstone.
• 1:43:20
  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Recording by
• 1:43:24
  Speaker 1: James K. White, Section six. How the flamingoes got their stockings.
• 1:43:32
  Speaker 1: Once the snakes decided that they would give a costume ball,
• 1:43:36
  Speaker 1: and to make the affair a truly brilliant one, they
• 1:43:39
  Speaker 1: sent invitations to the frogs, the toads, the alligators, and
• 1:43:43
  Speaker 1: the fish. The fish replied that since they had no legs,
• 1:43:47
  Speaker 1: they would not be able to do much dancing. Whereupon,
• 1:43:51
  Speaker 1: as a special courtesy to them, the ball was held
• 1:43:54
  Speaker 1: on the shore of the Purana. The fish swam up
• 1:43:58
  Speaker 1: to the very beach and sat looking on with their
• 1:44:00
  Speaker 1: heads out of water. When anything pleased them, they splashed
• 1:44:05
  Speaker 1: with their tails to make as good an appearance as possible.
• 1:44:09
  Speaker 1: The alligators put necklaces of bananas around their throats, and
• 1:44:13
  Speaker 1: they came to the ball smoking big Potaguay cigars. The
• 1:44:17
  Speaker 1: toads stuck fish scales all over their bodies, and when
• 1:44:21
  Speaker 1: they walked, they moved their fore legs out and in
• 1:44:24
  Speaker 1: as though they were swimming. They strutted up and down
• 1:44:28
  Speaker 1: the beach with very glum, determined faces, and the fish
• 1:44:32
  Speaker 1: kept calling to them, making fun of their scales. The
• 1:44:35
  Speaker 1: frogs were satisfied to leave their smooth green skins just
• 1:44:39
  Speaker 1: as they were, but they bathed themselves in perfume and
• 1:44:43
  Speaker 1: walked on their hind legs. Besides, each one carried a
• 1:44:47
  Speaker 1: lightning bug, which waved to and fro like a lantern
• 1:44:50
  Speaker 1: at the end of a string in the frog's hand.
• 1:44:54
  Speaker 1: But the best costumes of all were worn by the snakes.
• 1:44:58
  Speaker 1: All of them without exception, had dancing gowns of the
• 1:45:01
  Speaker 1: color of their skins. There were red snakes and brown snakes,
• 1:45:06
  Speaker 1: and pink snakes and yellow snakes, each with a garment
• 1:45:09
  Speaker 1: of tool to match. The Yaraa, who was a kind
• 1:45:13
  Speaker 1: of rattler, came in a single piece robe of gray
• 1:45:17
  Speaker 1: tul with brick colored stripes, for that is the way
• 1:45:20
  Speaker 1: the Yaraa dresses, even when he is not going to
• 1:45:23
  Speaker 1: a ball. The coral snakes were prettier still. They draped
• 1:45:28
  Speaker 1: themselves in a goze of reds, whites, and blacks, And
• 1:45:32
  Speaker 1: when they danced, they wound themselves round and round like corkscrews,
• 1:45:36
  Speaker 1: rising on the tips of their tails, coiling and uncoiling,
• 1:45:40
  Speaker 1: balancing this way and that. They were the most graceful
• 1:45:44
  Speaker 1: and beautiful of all the snakes, and the guests supplotted
• 1:45:47
  Speaker 1: them wildly. The flamingoes were the only ones who seemed
• 1:45:52
  Speaker 1: not to be having a good time, stupid birds that
• 1:45:55
  Speaker 1: they were. They had not thought of any costumes at all.
• 1:45:59
  Speaker 1: They came with the play white legs they had at
• 1:46:01
  Speaker 1: that time, and the thick twisted bills they have even now. Naturally,
• 1:46:06
  Speaker 1: they were envious of all the gowns they saw, but
• 1:46:10
  Speaker 1: most of all of the fancy dress of the coral snakes.
• 1:46:14
  Speaker 1: Every time one of these went by them curtseying, pirouetting, balancing,
• 1:46:19
  Speaker 1: the flamingoes writhed with jealousy, for no one meanwhile was
• 1:46:24
  Speaker 1: asking them to dance. I know what we must do,
• 1:46:29
  Speaker 1: said one of the flamingoes. At last, we must go
• 1:46:32
  Speaker 1: and get some stockings for our legs, pink, black and white,
• 1:46:37
  Speaker 1: like the coral snakes themselves. Then they will all fall
• 1:46:41
  Speaker 1: in love with us. The whole flock of them took
• 1:46:45
  Speaker 1: wing immediately and flew across the river to a village nearby.
• 1:46:50
  Speaker 1: They went to the store and knocked ton ton ton.
• 1:46:54
  Speaker 2: Who is it?
• 1:46:55
  Speaker 1: Called the storekeeper. We are the Flamingoes. We have come
• 1:47:00
  Speaker 1: to get some stockings pink, black and white. Are you crazy?
• 1:47:05
  Speaker 1: The storekeeper answered, I keep stockings for people, not for
• 1:47:10
  Speaker 1: silly birds. Besides, stockings of such colors, you won't find
• 1:47:15
  Speaker 1: any in town either. The Flamingoes went on to another store,
• 1:47:21
  Speaker 1: Ton ton ton, We're looking for stockings pink, black and white.
• 1:47:26
  Speaker 1: Have you any pink, black and white stockings? Don't you
• 1:47:31
  Speaker 1: know decent people don't wear such things. You must be crazy?
• 1:47:36
  Speaker 1: Who are you anyway, we are the flamingoes. The flamingoes replied,
• 1:47:43
  Speaker 1: In that case, you are silly flamingos. Better go somewhere else.
• 1:47:48
  Speaker 1: They went to still a third store, ton ton pink
• 1:47:53
  Speaker 1: black and white stockings. Got any pink, black and white nonsense,
• 1:47:58
  Speaker 1: called the storekeeper. Only birds with big noses like yours
• 1:48:02
  Speaker 1: could ask such a thing, don't make tracks on my floor,
• 1:48:07
  Speaker 1: And the man swept them into the street with a broom.
• 1:48:11
  Speaker 1: So the flamingoes went from store to store and everywhere
• 1:48:14
  Speaker 1: people called them silly stupid birds. However, an owl, a
• 1:48:19
  Speaker 1: mischievous tattoo, who had just been down to the river
• 1:48:23
  Speaker 1: to get some water and had heard all about the
• 1:48:25
  Speaker 1: ball and the flamingoes, met them on his way back
• 1:48:29
  Speaker 1: and thought he would have some fun with them. Good evening,
• 1:48:33
  Speaker 1: Good evening, flamingoes, he said, making a deep bow, though
• 1:48:37
  Speaker 1: of course it was just to ridicule the foolish birds.
• 1:48:41
  Speaker 1: I know what you're looking for. I doubt if you
• 1:48:43
  Speaker 1: can get any such stockings in town. You might find
• 1:48:47
  Speaker 1: them in Buenos Aires, but you would have to order
• 1:48:50
  Speaker 1: them by mail. My sister in law, the barn owl
• 1:48:53
  Speaker 1: has stockings like that, however, why don't you go round
• 1:48:56
  Speaker 1: and see her. She can give you her own and
• 1:48:59
  Speaker 1: borrow others from our family. Thanks, thanks, ever so much,
• 1:49:04
  Speaker 1: said the flamingos, and they flew off to the cellar
• 1:49:07
  Speaker 1: of a barn where the barn owl lived. Ton Ton,
• 1:49:11
  Speaker 1: good evening, missus owl, they said, a relation of yours.
• 1:49:15
  Speaker 1: Mister Tattoo, advised us to call on you tonight. As
• 1:49:20
  Speaker 1: you know, the snakes are giving a costume ball, and
• 1:49:23
  Speaker 1: we have no costumes. If you could lend us your pink,
• 1:49:27
  Speaker 1: black and white stockings, the coral snakes would be sure
• 1:49:30
  Speaker 1: to fall in love with us. Please to accommodate you,
• 1:49:34
  Speaker 1: said the barn owl. Will you wait just a moment.
• 1:49:39
  Speaker 1: She flew away and was gone some time. When she
• 1:49:43
  Speaker 1: came back, she had the stockings with her, but they
• 1:49:46
  Speaker 1: were not real stockings. There were nothing but skins from
• 1:49:50
  Speaker 1: coral snakes which the owl had caught and eaten during
• 1:49:53
  Speaker 1: the previous days. Perhaps these will do, she remarked.
• 1:49:58
  Speaker 2: But if you wear them.
• 1:50:00
  Speaker 1: At the ball, I advise you to do strictly as
• 1:50:03
  Speaker 1: I say, dance all night long and don't stop a moment,
• 1:50:09
  Speaker 1: for if you do, you will get into trouble.
• 1:50:12
  Speaker 2: I assure you.
• 1:50:14
  Speaker 1: The flamingos listened to what she said, but stupidly did
• 1:50:18
  Speaker 1: not try to guess what she could have meant by
• 1:50:20
  Speaker 1: such counsel. They saw no danger in the pretty stockings. Delightedly,
• 1:50:25
  Speaker 1: they doubled up their claws like fists, stuck them through
• 1:50:28
  Speaker 1: the snake skins, which were like so many long rubber tubes,
• 1:50:32
  Speaker 1: and flew back as quickly as they could to the ball.
• 1:50:36
  Speaker 1: When the guests at the dance saw the flamingos in
• 1:50:38
  Speaker 1: such handsome stockings, they were as jealous as could be.
• 1:50:42
  Speaker 1: You see, the coral snakes were the lions of the evening,
• 1:50:46
  Speaker 1: and after the flamingos came back, they would dance with
• 1:50:49
  Speaker 1: no one but the flamingoes. Remembering the instructions of the
• 1:50:53
  Speaker 1: barn owl, the flamingos kept their feet going all the time,
• 1:50:57
  Speaker 1: and the snakes could not see very clearly just what
• 1:51:00
  Speaker 1: those wonderful stockings were. After a time, however, they grew suspicious.
• 1:51:05
  Speaker 1: When a flamingo came dancing by, the snakes would get
• 1:51:09
  Speaker 1: down off the ends of their tails to examine its
• 1:51:11
  Speaker 1: feet more closely. The coral snakes, more than anybody else,
• 1:51:15
  Speaker 1: began to get uneasy they could not take their eyes
• 1:51:18
  Speaker 1: off those stockings, and they got as near as they could,
• 1:51:21
  Speaker 1: trying to touch the legs of the flamingos with the
• 1:51:23
  Speaker 1: tips of their tongues, for snakes used their tongues to
• 1:51:27
  Speaker 1: feel with much as people used their hands. But the
• 1:51:30
  Speaker 1: flamingos kept dancing and dancing all the while, though by
• 1:51:35
  Speaker 1: this time they were getting so tired they were about
• 1:51:37
  Speaker 1: ready to give up. The coral snakes understood that sooner
• 1:51:41
  Speaker 1: or later the flamingos would have to stop, so they
• 1:51:44
  Speaker 1: borrowed the lightning bugs from the frogs to be ready
• 1:51:47
  Speaker 1: when the flamingoes fell from sheer exhaustion, And in fact,
• 1:51:51
  Speaker 1: it was not long before one of the birds, all
• 1:51:53
  Speaker 1: tired out, tripped over the cigar in an alligator's mouth
• 1:51:57
  Speaker 1: and fell down on her side. The coral snakes all
• 1:52:01
  Speaker 1: ran toward her with their lanterns and held the lightning
• 1:52:04
  Speaker 1: bugs up so close that they could see the feet
• 1:52:06
  Speaker 1: of the flamingo as clearly as could be Aha Aha stockings,
• 1:52:13
  Speaker 1: eh stockings Ey. The coral snakes began to hiss so
• 1:52:17
  Speaker 1: loudly that people could hear them on the other side
• 1:52:20
  Speaker 1: of the purana. The cry was taken up by all
• 1:52:23
  Speaker 1: the snakes. They are not wearing stockings. We know what
• 1:52:27
  Speaker 1: they have done. The flamingoes have been killing brothers of ours,
• 1:52:32
  Speaker 1: and they are wearing their skins as stockings. Those pretty
• 1:52:36
  Speaker 1: legs each stand for the murder of a coral snake.
• 1:52:40
  Speaker 1: At this uproar, the flamingoes took fright and tried to
• 1:52:43
  Speaker 1: fly away, but they were so tired from all the
• 1:52:46
  Speaker 1: dancing that not one of them could move a wing.
• 1:52:50
  Speaker 1: The coral snakes darted upon them and began to bite
• 1:52:52
  Speaker 1: at their legs, tearing off the false stockings bit by bit,
• 1:52:56
  Speaker 1: and in their rage, sinking their fangs deep into the
• 1:52:59
  Speaker 1: feet and legs of the flamingoes. The flamingoes, terrified and
• 1:53:05
  Speaker 1: mad with pain, hopped this way and that, trying to
• 1:53:08
  Speaker 1: shake their enemies off. But the snakes did not let
• 1:53:11
  Speaker 1: go till every last shred of stocking had been torn away.
• 1:53:16
  Speaker 1: Then they crawled off to rearrange their gauze costumes that
• 1:53:20
  Speaker 1: had been much rumpled in the fray. They did not
• 1:53:23
  Speaker 1: try to kill the flamingoes then and there, for most
• 1:53:26
  Speaker 1: coral snakes are poisonous, and they were sure the birds
• 1:53:29
  Speaker 1: they had bitten would die sooner or later anyway, But
• 1:53:33
  Speaker 1: the flamingoes did not die. They hopped down to the
• 1:53:36
  Speaker 1: river and waded out into the water to relieve their pain.
• 1:53:40
  Speaker 1: Their feet and legs, which had been white before, had
• 1:53:43
  Speaker 1: now turned red from the poison in the bites. They
• 1:53:47
  Speaker 1: stood there for days and days, trying to cool the
• 1:53:50
  Speaker 1: burning ache and hoping to wash out the red. But
• 1:53:53
  Speaker 1: they did not succeed, and they have not succeeded yet.
• 1:53:58
  Speaker 1: The flamingoes still passed most of their time standing on
• 1:54:01
  Speaker 1: their red legs out in the water. Occasionally they go
• 1:54:05
  Speaker 1: ashore and walk up and down for a few moments
• 1:54:08
  Speaker 1: to see if they're getting well, but the pain comes
• 1:54:11
  Speaker 1: again at once and they hurry back into the water.
• 1:54:15
  Speaker 1: Even there, they sometimes feel an ache in one of
• 1:54:17
  Speaker 1: their feet, and they lift it out to warm it
• 1:54:20
  Speaker 1: in their feathers. They stand that way on one leg
• 1:54:23
  Speaker 1: for hours, I suppose, because the other one is so
• 1:54:26
  Speaker 1: stiff and lame. That is why the flamingos have red
• 1:54:30
  Speaker 1: legs instead of white, and the fishes know it too.
• 1:54:34
  Speaker 1: They keep coming up to the top of the water
• 1:54:36
  Speaker 1: and crying red legs, red legs, red legs, to make
• 1:54:41
  Speaker 1: fun of the flamingos for having tried to borrow costumes
• 1:54:44
  Speaker 1: for a ball. On that account, the flamingos are always
• 1:54:48
  Speaker 1: at war with the fishes. As they wade up and down,
• 1:54:51
  Speaker 1: and a fish comes up too close in order to
• 1:54:54
  Speaker 1: shout red legs at them, they dip their long bills
• 1:54:57
  Speaker 1: down and catch it if they can. End of section six.
• 1:55:02
  Speaker 1: Recording by James K. White. Chula Vista, Section seven of
• 1:55:12
  Speaker 1: South American Jungle Tales by Orasio Kidoga, translated by Arthur Livingstone.
• 1:55:19
  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Recording by
• 1:55:23
  Speaker 1: James K. White, Section seven. The lazy b in a
• 1:55:30
  Speaker 1: bee hive. Once there was a bee who would not work.
• 1:55:33
  Speaker 1: She would go flying from blossom to blossom on the
• 1:55:36
  Speaker 1: orange trees, sucking out all the honey, but instead of
• 1:55:39
  Speaker 1: taking it back to the hive, she would eat it
• 1:55:42
  Speaker 1: then and there she was a lazy bee. Every morning,
• 1:55:47
  Speaker 1: the moment the sun had warmed the hive, she would
• 1:55:49
  Speaker 1: come to the door and look out on making sure
• 1:55:52
  Speaker 1: that it was a lovely day. She would wash her
• 1:55:54
  Speaker 1: face and comb her hair with her paws the way
• 1:55:57
  Speaker 1: flies do, and then go flitting off as pleased as
• 1:56:01
  Speaker 1: could be at the bright weather, so she would go
• 1:56:04
  Speaker 1: buzzing and buzzing from flower to flower, and then after
• 1:56:08
  Speaker 1: a time she would go back and see what the
• 1:56:10
  Speaker 1: other bees were doing in the hive. So it would
• 1:56:13
  Speaker 1: go on all day long. Meantime, the other bees would
• 1:56:18
  Speaker 1: be working themselves to death trying to fill the hive
• 1:56:21
  Speaker 1: full of honey, for honey is what they give the
• 1:56:23
  Speaker 1: little bees to eat as soon as they are born.
• 1:56:26
  Speaker 1: And these worker bees, very staid, respectable, earnest bees, begin
• 1:56:30
  Speaker 1: to scowl at the conduct of this shirker of a sister.
• 1:56:33
  Speaker 1: They had. You must know that at the door of
• 1:56:37
  Speaker 1: every beehive there are always a number of bees on
• 1:56:41
  Speaker 1: watch to see that no insects but bees get into
• 1:56:44
  Speaker 1: the hive. These policemen, as a rule, are old bees
• 1:56:49
  Speaker 1: with a great deal of experience in life. Their backs
• 1:56:52
  Speaker 1: are quite bald because all the hair gets worn off
• 1:56:55
  Speaker 1: from rubbing against the hive as they walk in and
• 1:56:58
  Speaker 1: out of the door. One day, when the lazy bee
• 1:57:01
  Speaker 1: was just dropping in to see what was going on
• 1:57:03
  Speaker 1: in the hive, these policemen called her to one side.
• 1:57:07
  Speaker 1: Sister said they it is time you did a little work.
• 1:57:11
  Speaker 1: All us bees have to work. The little bee was
• 1:57:15
  Speaker 1: quite scared when the policeman spoke to her, but she answered,
• 1:57:19
  Speaker 1: I go flying about all day long and get very tired.
• 1:57:23
  Speaker 1: We didn't ask you how tired you got. We want
• 1:57:25
  Speaker 1: to see how much work you can do. This is
• 1:57:28
  Speaker 1: warning number one, and they let her go on into
• 1:57:32
  Speaker 1: the hive, but the lazy little bee did not mend
• 1:57:35
  Speaker 1: her ways. On the next evening, the policeman stopped her again, sister,
• 1:57:41
  Speaker 1: we didn't see you working to day. The little bee
• 1:57:44
  Speaker 1: was expecting something of the kind, and she had been
• 1:57:47
  Speaker 1: thinking up what she would say all the way home.
• 1:57:50
  Speaker 1: I'll go to work one of these days, she spoke up,
• 1:57:52
  Speaker 1: promptly and with a cheerful, winsome smile. We don't want
• 1:57:57
  Speaker 1: you to go to work one of these days, they
• 1:57:58
  Speaker 1: answered gruffly. We want you to go to work tomorrow morning.
• 1:58:02
  Speaker 1: This is warning number two, and they let her in.
• 1:58:07
  Speaker 1: The following night, when the lazy Bee came home, she
• 1:58:10
  Speaker 1: did not wait for the policemen to stop her. She
• 1:58:12
  Speaker 1: went up to them sorrowfully and said, yes, yes, I
• 1:58:16
  Speaker 1: remember what I promised. I'm so sorry I wasn't able
• 1:58:19
  Speaker 1: to work today. We didn't ask how sorry you were,
• 1:58:23
  Speaker 1: nor what you had promised. What we want from you
• 1:58:26
  Speaker 1: is work. Today is the nineteenth of April. Tomorrow will
• 1:58:30
  Speaker 1: be the twentieth of April. See to it that the
• 1:58:32
  Speaker 1: twentieth of April does not pass without your putting at
• 1:58:35
  Speaker 1: least one load of honey into the hive. This is
• 1:58:38
  Speaker 1: warning number three. You may enter, and the policeman, who
• 1:58:43
  Speaker 1: had been blocking the door, stepped aside to let her in.
• 1:58:47
  Speaker 1: The lazy bee woke up with very good intentions the
• 1:58:50
  Speaker 1: next morning, but the sun was so warm and bright,
• 1:58:53
  Speaker 1: and the flowers were so beautiful. The day passed the
• 1:58:56
  Speaker 1: same as all the others, except that toward the evening
• 1:58:59
  Speaker 1: the weather changed. The sun went down behind a great
• 1:59:02
  Speaker 1: bank of clouds, and a strong icy wind began to blow.
• 1:59:07
  Speaker 1: The lazy little bee started for home as fast as
• 1:59:09
  Speaker 1: she could, thinking how warm and cozy it would be
• 1:59:12
  Speaker 1: inside the hive with all that storm blowing out of doors.
• 1:59:16
  Speaker 1: But on the porch of the bee hive, the policeman
• 1:59:18
  Speaker 1: got in front of her. Where are you going, young lady,
• 1:59:22
  Speaker 1: said they I'm going into bed. This is where I live.
• 1:59:27
  Speaker 1: You must be mistaken, said the policeman. Only busy worker
• 1:59:31
  Speaker 1: bees live here. Lazy bees are not allowed inside this door. Tomorrow. Surely, surely, surely,
• 1:59:39
  Speaker 1: I am going to work, said the little bee. There
• 1:59:43
  Speaker 1: is no tomorrow for lazy bees, said the policeman, for
• 1:59:47
  Speaker 1: they were old, wise bees and new philosophy. Away with you,
• 1:59:52
  Speaker 1: and they pushed her off the doorstep. The little bee
• 1:59:56
  Speaker 1: did not know what to do. She flew around for
• 1:59:58
  Speaker 1: a time, but soon it began to grow dark. The
• 2:00:01
  Speaker 1: wind blew colder and colder, and drops of rain began
• 2:00:05
  Speaker 1: to fall. Quite tired, at last, she took hold of
• 2:00:08
  Speaker 1: a leaf, intending to rest a moment, but she was
• 2:00:11
  Speaker 1: chilled and numbed by the cold. She could not hang
• 2:00:14
  Speaker 1: on and fell a long distance to the ground. She
• 2:00:18
  Speaker 1: tried to get to her wings again, but they were
• 2:00:20
  Speaker 1: too tired to work, so she started crawling over the
• 2:00:24
  Speaker 1: ground toward the hive. Every stone, every stick she met
• 2:00:28
  Speaker 1: she had to climb over with great effort. So many
• 2:00:31
  Speaker 1: hills and mountains they seemed to such a tiny bee.
• 2:00:35
  Speaker 1: The rain drops were coming faster. When almost dead with
• 2:00:38
  Speaker 1: cold and fright and fatigue, she arrived at the door
• 2:00:41
  Speaker 1: of the hive. Oh oh, she moaned, I am cold,
• 2:00:46
  Speaker 1: and it is going to rain. I shall be sure
• 2:00:49
  Speaker 1: to die out here. And she crept up to the door,
• 2:00:53
  Speaker 1: but the fierce policeman again stopped her from going in.
• 2:00:57
  Speaker 1: Forgive me, sisters, the little bee said, please let me
• 2:01:00
  Speaker 1: go in. Too late, too late, they answered, please, sisters.
• 2:01:07
  Speaker 1: I'm so sleepy, said the little bee. Too late, too late,
• 2:01:12
  Speaker 1: said they, please, sisters. I'm cold, said the little bee.
• 2:01:18
  Speaker 1: Sorry you can't go in, said they, please. Sisters. For
• 2:01:24
  Speaker 1: one last time, I shall die out here. You won't die,
• 2:01:29
  Speaker 1: lazy bee. One night will teach you the value of
• 2:01:32
  Speaker 1: a warm bed earned by honest labor. Away from here,
• 2:01:36
  Speaker 1: and they pushed her off the doorstep again. By this
• 2:01:40
  Speaker 1: time it was raining hard. The little bee felt her
• 2:01:43
  Speaker 1: wings and fur getting wetter and wetter, and she was
• 2:01:46
  Speaker 1: so cold and sleepy she did not know what to do.
• 2:01:50
  Speaker 1: She crawled along as fast as she could over the ground,
• 2:01:53
  Speaker 1: hoping to come to some place where it was dry
• 2:01:55
  Speaker 1: and not so cold. At last she came to a
• 2:01:59
  Speaker 1: tree and began to walk up the trunk. Suddenly, just
• 2:02:03
  Speaker 1: as she had come to the crotch of two branches,
• 2:02:05
  Speaker 1: she fell. She fell a long, long distance and landed
• 2:02:09
  Speaker 1: finally on something soft. There was no wind and no
• 2:02:12
  Speaker 1: rain blowing. On Coming to her wits, the little bee
• 2:02:16
  Speaker 1: understood that she had fallen down through a hole inside
• 2:02:19
  Speaker 1: a hollow tree. And now the little bee had the
• 2:02:22
  Speaker 1: fright of her life coiled up Near her, there was
• 2:02:26
  Speaker 1: a snake, a green snake with a brick colored back.
• 2:02:30
  Speaker 1: That hollow tree was the snake's house, and the snake
• 2:02:34
  Speaker 1: lay there, looking at her with eyes that shone even
• 2:02:36
  Speaker 1: in that darkness. Now snakes eat bees and like them,
• 2:02:42
  Speaker 1: so when this little bee found herself so close to
• 2:02:45
  Speaker 1: a fearful enemy of her kind, she just closed her
• 2:02:48
  Speaker 1: eyes and murmured to herself, this is the last of me. Oh,
• 2:02:53
  Speaker 1: how I wish I had worked. To her great surprise, however,
• 2:02:57
  Speaker 1: the snake not only did not eat her, but spoke
• 2:02:59
  Speaker 1: to her softly. For such a terrible snake, how do
• 2:03:03
  Speaker 1: you do, little bee? You must be a naughty little
• 2:03:06
  Speaker 1: bee to be out so late at night. Yes, she murmured,
• 2:03:10
  Speaker 1: her heart in her throat. I have been a naughty bee.
• 2:03:14
  Speaker 1: I did not work, and they won't let me in
• 2:03:16
  Speaker 1: to go to my bed. In that case, I shall
• 2:03:19
  Speaker 1: not be so sorry to eat you, answered the snake.
• 2:03:23
  Speaker 1: Surely there can be no harm at all in depriving
• 2:03:25
  Speaker 1: the world of a useless little bee like you. I
• 2:03:28
  Speaker 1: won't have to go out for dinner tonight. I shall
• 2:03:31
  Speaker 1: eat you right here. The little bee was about as
• 2:03:34
  Speaker 1: scared as a bee can be. That is not fair,
• 2:03:37
  Speaker 1: she said. It is not just you have no right
• 2:03:40
  Speaker 1: to eat me just because you are bigger than I am.
• 2:03:43
  Speaker 1: Go and ask people if that isn't. So people know
• 2:03:46
  Speaker 1: what is right and wrong. Ah ah, said the snake,
• 2:03:51
  Speaker 1: lifting his head higher. So you have a good opinion
• 2:03:54
  Speaker 1: of men. So you think that the men who steal
• 2:03:57
  Speaker 1: your honey are more honest than snakes who each you.
• 2:04:00
  Speaker 1: You are not only a lazy bee, you are also
• 2:04:04
  Speaker 1: a silly one. It is not because men are dishonest
• 2:04:07
  Speaker 1: that they take our money, said the bee. Why is it, then,
• 2:04:11
  Speaker 1: said the snake. It's because they are more intelligent than
• 2:04:14
  Speaker 1: we are. That is what the bee said. But the
• 2:04:17
  Speaker 1: snake just laughed, and then he hissed, Well, if you
• 2:04:22
  Speaker 1: must have it that way, it's because I'm more intelligent
• 2:04:24
  Speaker 1: than you that I'm going to eat you. Now, get
• 2:04:27
  Speaker 1: ready to be eaten, lazy bee. And the snake drew
• 2:04:31
  Speaker 1: back to strike and lap up the bee at one gobble,
• 2:04:35
  Speaker 1: But the little bee had time to say, it's because
• 2:04:38
  Speaker 1: you're duller that I am that you eat me duller
• 2:04:42
  Speaker 1: than you, asked the snake, letting his head down again.
• 2:04:46
  Speaker 1: How is that stupid? However it is, it's so I'll
• 2:04:52
  Speaker 1: have to be shown, said the snake. I will make
• 2:04:54
  Speaker 1: a bargain with you. We will each do a trick,
• 2:04:58
  Speaker 1: and the cleverest trick win. If I win, I'll eat you.
• 2:05:03
  Speaker 1: And if I win, asked the little bee. If you win,
• 2:05:07
  Speaker 1: said the snake. After some thought, you may stay in
• 2:05:10
  Speaker 1: here where it is warm all night. Is it a bargain?
• 2:05:14
  Speaker 1: It is, said the bee. The snake considered another moment
• 2:05:19
  Speaker 1: or so and then began to laugh. He had thought
• 2:05:21
  Speaker 1: of something a bee could not possibly do. He darted
• 2:05:25
  Speaker 1: out of a hole in the tree so quickly the
• 2:05:27
  Speaker 1: bee had scarcely time to wonder what he was up to,
• 2:05:30
  Speaker 1: and just as quickly he came back with a seed
• 2:05:33
  Speaker 1: pod from the eucalyptus tree that stood near the bee
• 2:05:35
  Speaker 1: hive and shaded it on days when the sun was hot. Now,
• 2:05:40
  Speaker 1: the seed pods of the eucalyptus tree are just the
• 2:05:42
  Speaker 1: shape of a top. In fact, the boys and girls
• 2:05:45
  Speaker 1: in Argentina call them tops trumpitos. Now you just watch
• 2:05:50
  Speaker 1: and see what I'm going to do, said the snake.
• 2:05:52
  Speaker 1: Watch now, watch The snake wound the thin part of
• 2:05:56
  Speaker 1: his tail around the top like a string. Then, with
• 2:05:59
  Speaker 1: a jump forward to his full length, he straightened his
• 2:06:02
  Speaker 1: tail out. The top began to spin like mad on
• 2:06:06
  Speaker 1: the bark floor there at the bottom of the hollow tree.
• 2:06:09
  Speaker 1: And it spun and spun and spun, dancing, jumping, running
• 2:06:13
  Speaker 1: off in disdirection, and then in that direction. And the
• 2:06:17
  Speaker 1: snake laughed and he laughed, and he laughed and he laughed.
• 2:06:21
  Speaker 1: No bee would ever be able to do a thing
• 2:06:23
  Speaker 1: like that. Finally, the top tired of spinning and fell
• 2:06:27
  Speaker 1: over on its side. That is very clever, said the bee.
• 2:06:31
  Speaker 1: I could never do that. In that case, I shall
• 2:06:34
  Speaker 1: have to eat you, said the snake. Not just yet, please,
• 2:06:38
  Speaker 1: said the bee. I can't spin a top, but I
• 2:06:41
  Speaker 1: can do something no one else can do. What is that,
• 2:06:45
  Speaker 1: asked the snake. I can disappear, said the bee. What
• 2:06:49
  Speaker 1: do you mean, disappear, said the snake with some interest.
• 2:06:53
  Speaker 1: Disappear so that I can't see you. And without going
• 2:06:56
  Speaker 1: away from here, without going away from here, without hiding
• 2:07:01
  Speaker 1: in the ground, without hiding in the ground, I give up,
• 2:07:05
  Speaker 1: said the snake. Disappear. But if you don't do as
• 2:07:08
  Speaker 1: you say, I eat you gobble, gobble, just like that.
• 2:07:14
  Speaker 1: Now you must know that while the top was spinning
• 2:07:16
  Speaker 1: round and round, the little bee had noticed something on
• 2:07:19
  Speaker 1: the floor of the hollow tree she had not seen before.
• 2:07:22
  Speaker 1: It was a little shrub three or four inches high,
• 2:07:25
  Speaker 1: with leaves about the size of a fifty cent piece.
• 2:07:29
  Speaker 1: She now walked over to the stem of this little shrub,
• 2:07:31
  Speaker 1: taking care, however, not to touch it with her body.
• 2:07:35
  Speaker 1: Then she said, now it is my turn, mister snake.
• 2:07:39
  Speaker 1: Won't you be so kind as to turn around and
• 2:07:41
  Speaker 1: count one, two three at the word three. You can
• 2:07:45
  Speaker 1: look for me everywhere. I simply won't be around. The
• 2:07:49
  Speaker 1: snake looked the other way and ran off a one,
• 2:07:52
  Speaker 1: two three, then turning around with his mouth wide open
• 2:07:56
  Speaker 1: to have his dinner at last. You see, he counted
• 2:07:59
  Speaker 1: so fat asked just to give the bee as little
• 2:08:01
  Speaker 1: time as possible under the contract they had made. But
• 2:08:05
  Speaker 1: if he opened his mouth wide for his dinner. He
• 2:08:08
  Speaker 1: held it open in complete surprise. There was no bee
• 2:08:11
  Speaker 1: to be found anywhere. He looked on the floor, He
• 2:08:14
  Speaker 1: looked on the sides of the hollow tree. He looked
• 2:08:17
  Speaker 1: in each nook and cranny, he looked a little shrub
• 2:08:20
  Speaker 1: all over nothing. The bee had simply disappeared. Now the
• 2:08:26
  Speaker 1: snake understood that if his trick of spinning the top
• 2:08:29
  Speaker 1: with his tail was extraordinary, this trick of the bee
• 2:08:32
  Speaker 1: was almost miraculous. Where had that good for nothing lazy
• 2:08:36
  Speaker 1: bones gone to? Here? No? There? No where? Then nowhere
• 2:08:45
  Speaker 1: there was no way to find the little bee, Well,
• 2:08:48
  Speaker 1: said the snake at last, I give up? Where are you?
• 2:08:53
  Speaker 1: A little voice seemed to come from a long way off,
• 2:08:55
  Speaker 1: but still from the middle of the space inside the
• 2:08:57
  Speaker 1: hollow tree.
• 2:08:59
  Speaker 2: You won't eat me if I reappear.
• 2:09:01
  Speaker 1: It said. No, I won't eat you, said the snake. Promise,
• 2:09:07
  Speaker 1: I promise. But where are you?
• 2:09:10
  Speaker 2: Here?
• 2:09:10
  Speaker 1: I am, said the bee, coming out on one of
• 2:09:13
  Speaker 1: the leaves of the little shrub. It was not such
• 2:09:16
  Speaker 1: a great mystery, after all. That shrub was a sensitive plant,
• 2:09:21
  Speaker 1: a plant that is very common in South America, especially
• 2:09:24
  Speaker 1: in the north of the Republic of Argentina, where sensitive
• 2:09:27
  Speaker 1: plants grow to quite a good size. The peculiarity of
• 2:09:31
  Speaker 1: the sensitive plant is that it shrivels up its leaves
• 2:09:34
  Speaker 1: at the slightest contact. The leaves of this shrub were
• 2:09:37
  Speaker 1: unusually large, as is true of the sensitive plants around
• 2:09:41
  Speaker 1: the city of Missionis you see the moment the bee
• 2:09:44
  Speaker 1: lighted on a leaf, it folded up tight about her,
• 2:09:47
  Speaker 1: hiding her completely from view. Now, the snake had been
• 2:09:51
  Speaker 1: living next to that plant all the season long and
• 2:09:54
  Speaker 1: had never noticed anything unusual about it. The little bee
• 2:09:57
  Speaker 1: had paid attention to such things, however, and her knowledge
• 2:10:00
  Speaker 1: this time had saved her life. The snake was very
• 2:10:04
  Speaker 1: much ashamed at being bested by such a little bee,
• 2:10:07
  Speaker 1: and he was not very nice about it either. So
• 2:10:09
  Speaker 1: much so, in fact, that the bee spent most of
• 2:10:11
  Speaker 1: the night reminding him of the promise he had made
• 2:10:14
  Speaker 1: not to eat her. And it was a long, endless
• 2:10:17
  Speaker 1: night for the little bee. She sat on the floor
• 2:10:20
  Speaker 1: in one corner, and the snake coiled up in the
• 2:10:22
  Speaker 1: other corner opposite. Pretty soon it began to rain so
• 2:10:25
  Speaker 1: hard that the water came pouring in through the hole
• 2:10:28
  Speaker 1: at the top of the tree and made quite a
• 2:10:30
  Speaker 1: puddle on the floor. The bee sat there and shivered
• 2:10:33
  Speaker 1: and shivered, and every so often the snake would raise
• 2:10:36
  Speaker 1: his head as though to swallow her at one gulp.
• 2:10:39
  Speaker 1: You promised, you promised, you promised, and the snake would
• 2:10:44
  Speaker 1: lower his head sheepish like, because he did not want
• 2:10:47
  Speaker 1: the bee to think him a dishonest as well as
• 2:10:49
  Speaker 1: a stupid snake. The little bee, who had been used
• 2:10:53
  Speaker 1: to a warm hive at home and to warm sunlight
• 2:10:55
  Speaker 1: out of doors, had never dreamed there could be so
• 2:10:58
  Speaker 1: much cold anywhere as there was in that hollow tree,
• 2:11:02
  Speaker 1: nor had there ever been a night so long. But
• 2:11:05
  Speaker 1: the moment there was a trace of daylight at the
• 2:11:06
  Speaker 1: hole in the top of the tree, the bee bade
• 2:11:09
  Speaker 1: the snake good bye and crawled out. She tried her wings,
• 2:11:13
  Speaker 1: and this time they worked all right. She flew in
• 2:11:16
  Speaker 1: a bee line straight for the door of the hive.
• 2:11:20
  Speaker 1: The policemen were standing there, and she began to cry,
• 2:11:23
  Speaker 1: but they simply stepped aside, without saying a word, and
• 2:11:25
  Speaker 1: let her in. They understood, you see, as wise old bees,
• 2:11:30
  Speaker 1: that this wayward child was not the lazy bee they
• 2:11:32
  Speaker 1: had driven away the evening before, but a sadder and
• 2:11:36
  Speaker 1: wiser child who now knew something about the world she
• 2:11:39
  Speaker 1: had to live in. And they were right. Never before
• 2:11:44
  Speaker 1: was there such a bee for working from morning till night,
• 2:11:46
  Speaker 1: day in day out, gathering pollen and honey from the flowers.
• 2:11:51
  Speaker 1: When autumn came, she was the most respected bee in
• 2:11:54
  Speaker 1: the hive, and she was appointed teacher of the young
• 2:11:56
  Speaker 1: bees who would do the work the following year, and
• 2:12:00
  Speaker 1: her first lesson was something like this. It is not
• 2:12:04
  Speaker 1: because bees are intelligent, but because they work that makes
• 2:12:07
  Speaker 1: them such wonderful little things. I used my intelligence only once,
• 2:12:13
  Speaker 1: and that was to save my life. I should not
• 2:12:15
  Speaker 1: have gotten into that trouble. However, if I had worked
• 2:12:18
  Speaker 1: like all the other bees I used to waste my
• 2:12:21
  Speaker 1: strength just flying around doing nothing, I should not have
• 2:12:25
  Speaker 1: been any more tired. If I had worked. What I
• 2:12:27
  Speaker 1: needed was a sense of duty, and I got it
• 2:12:30
  Speaker 1: that night. I spent with the snake in the hollow
• 2:12:32
  Speaker 1: tree work, my little bees, work, remembering that what we
• 2:12:38
  Speaker 1: are all working for, the happiness of everybody will be
• 2:12:42
  Speaker 1: hard enough to get if each of us does his
• 2:12:44
  Speaker 1: full duty. This is what people say, and it is
• 2:12:48
  Speaker 1: just as true of bees. Work well and faithfully, and
• 2:12:53
  Speaker 1: you will be happy. There is no sounder philosophy for
• 2:12:56
  Speaker 1: a man or for a bee. End of section seven,
• 2:13:01
  Speaker 1: recording by James K. White. Chula Vista, Section eight of
• 2:13:11
  Speaker 1: South American Jungle Tales by Oracio Kiroga, translated by Arthur Livingstone.
• 2:13:18
  Speaker 1: This Librivos recording is in the public domain. Recording by
• 2:13:22
  Speaker 1: James K. White, Section eight The Giant Tortoises Golden Rule.
• 2:13:29
  Speaker 1: Once there was a man who lived in Buenos Aires
• 2:13:32
  Speaker 1: and was a friend of the superintendent of the zoo.
• 2:13:35
  Speaker 1: This man had a very happy life because he worked
• 2:13:38
  Speaker 1: hard and enjoyed good health. But one day he fell ill,
• 2:13:43
  Speaker 1: and the doctors told him he would never get well
• 2:13:45
  Speaker 1: unless he left town and went to live in the
• 2:13:47
  Speaker 1: country where there was good air and a warm climate.
• 2:13:51
  Speaker 1: The man could not think of such a thing. However,
• 2:13:53
  Speaker 1: he had five little brothers and both his parents were dead.
• 2:13:57
  Speaker 1: He had to provide the little boys with food and
• 2:14:00
  Speaker 1: clothes and get them ready for school in the morning.
• 2:14:02
  Speaker 1: Who would care for them if he went away. So
• 2:14:05
  Speaker 1: he kept on with his work, and his illness grew
• 2:14:08
  Speaker 1: worse and worse. One day a man from the zoom
• 2:14:12
  Speaker 1: met him on the street and said, you ought to
• 2:14:14
  Speaker 1: go and live an out of door life for a while.
• 2:14:17
  Speaker 1: Now I have an idea. We need a collection of
• 2:14:20
  Speaker 1: new specimens for our museum, and you are a good
• 2:14:23
  Speaker 1: shot with a gun. Wouldn't you like to go up
• 2:14:26
  Speaker 1: into the andes and hunt for us. I will pay
• 2:14:29
  Speaker 1: for your outfit and get a woman to look after
• 2:14:31
  Speaker 1: your little brothers. It will not cost you very much,
• 2:14:34
  Speaker 1: and there will be plenty of money left for the boys.
• 2:14:38
  Speaker 1: The sick man gladly accepted. He went off to the
• 2:14:41
  Speaker 1: mountains many many miles beyond missiones, where he camped in
• 2:14:45
  Speaker 1: the open air and soon began to get better. He
• 2:14:48
  Speaker 1: lived quite by himself, doing his own cooking, washing his
• 2:14:52
  Speaker 1: own clothes, and making his own bed, which was a
• 2:14:55
  Speaker 1: bag with blankets in it. He did not use a tent,
• 2:14:58
  Speaker 1: but slept in the bag out under the stars. When
• 2:15:02
  Speaker 1: it rained, he would throw up a shelter of branches,
• 2:15:05
  Speaker 1: cover it with his waterproof and sit down all cozy
• 2:15:08
  Speaker 1: underneath till the storm cleared. He ate partridges and venison
• 2:15:13
  Speaker 1: with the berries and wild fruits he found along the mountains.
• 2:15:16
  Speaker 1: Whenever he saw some rare animal that the zoo would want,
• 2:15:20
  Speaker 1: he shot it and dried its skin in the sun.
• 2:15:24
  Speaker 1: In course of time, he made a big bundle of
• 2:15:26
  Speaker 1: such skins, which he carried on his shoulder whenever he
• 2:15:29
  Speaker 1: moved his camp to a new place. Many beautifully spotted snakes,
• 2:15:33
  Speaker 1: he was able to catch alive, and these he kept
• 2:15:36
  Speaker 1: in a big hollow gourd. For in South America, wild
• 2:15:39
  Speaker 1: squashes and pumpkins grow till they are as large as
• 2:15:42
  Speaker 1: gasoline cans. All this was very hard work, but the
• 2:15:47
  Speaker 1: man grew strong and healthy again, and what an appetite
• 2:15:50
  Speaker 1: he had when supper time came around. One day, when
• 2:15:54
  Speaker 1: his provisions were getting low, he went out hunting with
• 2:15:57
  Speaker 1: his gun. Soon he came to a wide lake, and
• 2:16:01
  Speaker 1: what should he see on the shore but a huge
• 2:16:03
  Speaker 1: panther that had caught a tortoise. The fierce animal had
• 2:16:07
  Speaker 1: drawn the turtle up out of the water and was
• 2:16:09
  Speaker 1: clawing between the two shells, trying to scratch the meat out.
• 2:16:13
  Speaker 1: As the man approached, the panther turned and, with a
• 2:16:17
  Speaker 1: great roar, leaped toward him. The panther was not quick enough, however,
• 2:16:22
  Speaker 1: for a bullet from the man's rifle caught him between
• 2:16:24
  Speaker 1: the eyes and laid him low in his tracks. What
• 2:16:27
  Speaker 1: a wonderful rug this skin will make for somebody, the
• 2:16:30
  Speaker 1: men exclaimed, and he carefully removed the hide and rolled
• 2:16:33
  Speaker 1: it up to take home. I think I will have
• 2:16:36
  Speaker 1: turtle soup for supper tonight, the man continued, as he
• 2:16:39
  Speaker 1: turned toward the tortoise, for turtle flesh is one of
• 2:16:42
  Speaker 1: the richest and sweetest of all meats. But he could
• 2:16:46
  Speaker 1: not help feeling very sorry for the poor turtle when
• 2:16:49
  Speaker 1: he saw what a plight she was in. The panther's
• 2:16:52
  Speaker 1: claws had torn the flesh terribly, and a great gash
• 2:16:55
  Speaker 1: in her throat had all but left her head severed
• 2:16:58
  Speaker 1: from the rest of the body. Instead of killing the
• 2:17:01
  Speaker 1: wounded turtle, the hunter thought he would try to cure
• 2:17:03
  Speaker 1: her of her hurts. The camp was some distance away,
• 2:17:08
  Speaker 1: and the man was very tired. Besides, when he tried
• 2:17:11
  Speaker 1: to lift the tortoise, he found she weighed nearly two
• 2:17:14
  Speaker 1: hundred pounds. Finally, he put a rope around her and
• 2:17:18
  Speaker 1: pulled and hauled till he dragged her along over the
• 2:17:20
  Speaker 1: grass back to the camp. The man had no extra
• 2:17:24
  Speaker 1: pieces of cloth to make a bandage with, so he
• 2:17:26
  Speaker 1: cut off a piece of his shirt and took the
• 2:17:28
  Speaker 1: lining out of his coat. Finally, he managed to bind
• 2:17:32
  Speaker 1: up the tortoise's throat and stop the bleeding. Then he
• 2:17:35
  Speaker 1: pushed her into a corner of the shelter, where she
• 2:17:37
  Speaker 1: lay motionless for days and days. Twice a day the
• 2:17:41
  Speaker 1: man would come and wash the wound with water and liniment.
• 2:17:45
  Speaker 1: When he thought the cut had healed, he took off
• 2:17:47
  Speaker 1: the wrapping and the tortoise drew her head into her shell.
• 2:17:51
  Speaker 1: The man kept visiting her every morning, however, tapping gently
• 2:17:54
  Speaker 1: on the turtle's back to wake her up. The tortoise
• 2:17:58
  Speaker 1: got entirely well. But then something terrible happened. The man
• 2:18:02
  Speaker 1: caught a fever in the swamps around the lake, and
• 2:18:05
  Speaker 1: chills and pains began to rack his body. One morning,
• 2:18:09
  Speaker 1: he could not get out of his sleeping bag, but
• 2:18:11
  Speaker 1: just lay there groaning. His fever got rapidly worse, and
• 2:18:15
  Speaker 1: a parching thirst burned at his throat. In his delirium,
• 2:18:19
  Speaker 1: he began to talk out loud. Here I am all
• 2:18:23
  Speaker 1: alone away out here in the woods. I am surely
• 2:18:27
  Speaker 1: going to die. There is no one even to bring
• 2:18:30
  Speaker 1: me a drink of water. But the tortoise all this
• 2:18:34
  Speaker 1: time had not been sleeping so soundly as the man
• 2:18:36
  Speaker 1: had thought. In fact, she had been slyly watching him
• 2:18:40
  Speaker 1: as he worked about the camp. When the hunter did
• 2:18:43
  Speaker 1: not get up that morning, the tortoise understood that something
• 2:18:46
  Speaker 1: was wrong, and also that it was water. He kept
• 2:18:49
  Speaker 1: calling for this man thought. The tortoise did not eat
• 2:18:54
  Speaker 1: me that day, though he had me in his power
• 2:18:56
  Speaker 1: and was hungry. Instead, he took care of me till
• 2:19:00
  Speaker 1: I was well. A good tortoise ought surely to do
• 2:19:03
  Speaker 1: as much for him, the big turtle. She stood as
• 2:19:07
  Speaker 1: high as a chair, and weighed, as I said, as
• 2:19:10
  Speaker 1: much as a man. Crawled off to the lakeside. There
• 2:19:14
  Speaker 1: she hunted around till she found a small tortoise shell.
• 2:19:18
  Speaker 1: She polished it with sand till it was bright and shiny.
• 2:19:22
  Speaker 1: Then she filled it with pure cold water from a spring,
• 2:19:26
  Speaker 1: crawled back to camp with it, and gave the man
• 2:19:28
  Speaker 1: a drink. Now for something to eat, said the turtle.
• 2:19:33
  Speaker 1: Turtles know the most peculiar kinds of roots and grasses
• 2:19:36
  Speaker 1: to eat when they are sick. This tortoise went out
• 2:19:39
  Speaker 1: and gathered a supply of such herbs and fed them
• 2:19:41
  Speaker 1: to the man. And he ate them without noticing who
• 2:19:44
  Speaker 1: was finding his food for him. So nearly unconscious was
• 2:19:48
  Speaker 1: he in his delirium. So day after day the tortoise
• 2:19:51
  Speaker 1: went hunting and hunting over the mountain sides, looking for
• 2:19:54
  Speaker 1: tenderer and tenderer grasses with stronger and stronger juices, and
• 2:20:00
  Speaker 1: how sorry she was, she could not climb trees where
• 2:20:02
  Speaker 1: such fine berries and fruits were hanging. Thus the hunter
• 2:20:07
  Speaker 1: lay for a week or more, struggling between life and death,
• 2:20:10
  Speaker 1: and kept alive only by the herbs the tortoise brought him.
• 2:20:14
  Speaker 1: And then one day, to the joy of the faithful animal,
• 2:20:17
  Speaker 1: the man sat up in his sleeping bag. The fever
• 2:20:20
  Speaker 1: had left him and his mind was clear. He looked
• 2:20:23
  Speaker 1: around in surprised to see the water and a bundle
• 2:20:26
  Speaker 1: of grasses near him, for he was quite alone, save
• 2:20:29
  Speaker 1: for the big turtle that still seemed to be sleeping
• 2:20:31
  Speaker 1: in her corner. Alas I am lost, he moaned, no
• 2:20:37
  Speaker 1: one will ever come to me. The fever will return,
• 2:20:40
  Speaker 1: and I cannot get any medicine nearer than Buenos aidas
• 2:20:44
  Speaker 1: if I could walk, I might get there, but I can't,
• 2:20:48
  Speaker 1: so I must die. And just as he feared, the
• 2:20:52
  Speaker 1: fever did return that evening, worse than before, and the
• 2:20:56
  Speaker 1: man fell back into unconsciousness. But again the turtle had understood, yes,
• 2:21:01
  Speaker 1: he will die if he stays here. I must get
• 2:21:04
  Speaker 1: him to Buenos Aires, where there is some medicine. Carefully
• 2:21:09
  Speaker 1: she dragged the bundle of skins up to the man
• 2:21:11
  Speaker 1: and placed it in position on his body. Then she
• 2:21:14
  Speaker 1: did the same with the gourd full of snakes, and
• 2:21:17
  Speaker 1: what a task it was to get the gun in
• 2:21:19
  Speaker 1: place on top of the whole pile. Finally she went
• 2:21:22
  Speaker 1: out into the woods and bit off a number of tough,
• 2:21:25
  Speaker 1: strong vines. These she stretched across the sleeping man and
• 2:21:29
  Speaker 1: tied to his arms and legs in such a way
• 2:21:32
  Speaker 1: as to keep the baggage from falling off. She dug
• 2:21:35
  Speaker 1: her way under the sleeping bag till everything was balanced
• 2:21:38
  Speaker 1: on her back, and then she started off toward Buenos Aires.
• 2:21:42
  Speaker 1: She crawled along for ten or twelve hours each day,
• 2:21:45
  Speaker 1: swimming rivers and ponds, sinking deep into the mud of bogs,
• 2:21:50
  Speaker 1: climbing hills, and crossing sandy plains where the sun at
• 2:21:53
  Speaker 1: midday scorched terribly. In his fever, the man kept calling
• 2:21:58
  Speaker 1: for water, and it was very true trying to the
• 2:22:00
  Speaker 1: poor tortoise to have to get the man off her
• 2:22:02
  Speaker 1: back each time while she went looking for a drink
• 2:22:04
  Speaker 1: for him. But she struggled forward just the same, and
• 2:22:08
  Speaker 1: each night she knew she was that much nearer to
• 2:22:11
  Speaker 1: Buenos Aidas. But the tortoise, after days and days of
• 2:22:15
  Speaker 1: this toil understood that her own strength was giving out.
• 2:22:19
  Speaker 1: She did not complain, but she began to be afraid
• 2:22:21
  Speaker 1: that she would die before getting the hunter to a
• 2:22:24
  Speaker 1: place of safety. And one morning, in fact, she was
• 2:22:27
  Speaker 1: so tired she was quite unable to move. Here, I
• 2:22:30
  Speaker 1: am dying all alone in the woods, the man moaned
• 2:22:34
  Speaker 1: from his bag. No one will help me get to
• 2:22:37
  Speaker 1: Buenos Aires. Oh, oh, I shall die here all alone.
• 2:22:42
  Speaker 1: You see, the man had been unconscious all the time,
• 2:22:45
  Speaker 1: and thought he was still lying in the shelter away
• 2:22:48
  Speaker 1: back in the mountains. The words stirred the weary tortoise
• 2:22:52
  Speaker 1: to fresh effort. She got the man up on her
• 2:22:54
  Speaker 1: back again and went on. But the moment came when
• 2:22:58
  Speaker 1: she could not take another step forward. She had not
• 2:23:01
  Speaker 1: been eating for some days because she had not dared
• 2:23:03
  Speaker 1: take the time for hunting. Now she was too weak
• 2:23:07
  Speaker 1: to do even that, So she drew her legs into
• 2:23:10
  Speaker 1: her shell and closed her eyes, waiting for death to come,
• 2:23:14
  Speaker 1: and mourning inside her turtle heart that she had failed
• 2:23:17
  Speaker 1: in saving the life of the man who had befriended her.
• 2:23:20
  Speaker 1: The sun went down and night fell. As the turtle
• 2:23:23
  Speaker 1: chanced to open her eyes, she was surprised to see
• 2:23:26
  Speaker 1: a reddish glow on the distant horizon, and she heard
• 2:23:29
  Speaker 1: a voice, the voice of a wharf rat talking near by.
• 2:23:34
  Speaker 1: The rat was saying, my, what a turtle, What a turtle.
• 2:23:39
  Speaker 1: I never saw such a big one in my life.
• 2:23:42
  Speaker 1: And what is that on her back? A cord of wood?
• 2:23:46
  Speaker 1: The poor turtle did not know that those lights came
• 2:23:49
  Speaker 1: from Buenos Aires, and that the rat was a citizen
• 2:23:52
  Speaker 1: of that town, out for a night's foraging in the
• 2:23:54
  Speaker 1: fields of the suburbs. It is not a cord of wood,
• 2:23:59
  Speaker 1: the turtle murmured. It is a man, a sick man.
• 2:24:03
  Speaker 1: And what on earth are you doing here with a
• 2:24:05
  Speaker 1: man on your back? The rat inquired, laughing the way
• 2:24:08
  Speaker 1: rats from the city laugh at their country cousins. I
• 2:24:12
  Speaker 1: I was, the tortoise murmured faintly. I was taking him
• 2:24:17
  Speaker 1: to Buenosidis to be cured. But I shall never get there.
• 2:24:21
  Speaker 1: My strength is given out. I'm going to die. We
• 2:24:24
  Speaker 1: are both going to die right here. I never saw
• 2:24:28
  Speaker 1: such a silly turtle, the rat replied, don't you know
• 2:24:32
  Speaker 1: you're in Buenosytis now, don't you see those lights? They're
• 2:24:37
  Speaker 1: from the theater district. Go along, straight ahead, and you'll
• 2:24:41
  Speaker 1: get there in no time. This encouraging news filled the
• 2:24:45
  Speaker 1: tortoise with new life. She strained every muscle inside her
• 2:24:49
  Speaker 1: shell and moved slowly but surely forward. When it was daylight,
• 2:24:53
  Speaker 1: she found herself quite inside the town. And who should
• 2:24:56
  Speaker 1: come along the street but the superintendent of the zoo. Ye,
• 2:25:00
  Speaker 1: what a turtle, what a big turtle, he exclaimed, And
• 2:25:04
  Speaker 1: what in the world is she carrying on her back?
• 2:25:07
  Speaker 1: The tortoise could not speak from sheer fatigue. She stopped,
• 2:25:11
  Speaker 1: and the man came up to examine the strange outfit
• 2:25:13
  Speaker 1: on her back. To his amazement, he recognized his friend
• 2:25:18
  Speaker 1: in the man, sleeping pale and fever stricken inside the bag.
• 2:25:23
  Speaker 1: He called a carriage and got the man home, sending
• 2:25:25
  Speaker 1: for a doctor to come at once. In course of time,
• 2:25:29
  Speaker 1: the man got well when he learned that the tortoise
• 2:25:32
  Speaker 1: had brought him miles and miles on her back, all
• 2:25:35
  Speaker 1: the way from the Andes to Buenos Aires. He could
• 2:25:38
  Speaker 1: hardly believe the story, and out of gratitude, he said
• 2:25:41
  Speaker 1: he would make a home for her the rest of
• 2:25:43
  Speaker 1: her life. His own cottage was quite filled with his
• 2:25:46
  Speaker 1: six little brothers, and there was no room for such
• 2:25:48
  Speaker 1: a big pet in the house. But the director of
• 2:25:51
  Speaker 1: the zoo said he would find a place for her
• 2:25:53
  Speaker 1: there and care for her as tenderly as he would
• 2:25:56
  Speaker 1: for his own daughter. And that is what happened. The
• 2:26:00
  Speaker 1: tortoise was given a house for herself alone, with a
• 2:26:03
  Speaker 1: tank of water in the front yard, where she could
• 2:26:06
  Speaker 1: swim if she wanted to. She was allowed to wander
• 2:26:09
  Speaker 1: at will over all the gardens of the zoo, though
• 2:26:12
  Speaker 1: she spent a large part of her time near the
• 2:26:14
  Speaker 1: monkey house, where there was most to eat, and she
• 2:26:18
  Speaker 1: is still living there. Go to the zoological park any
• 2:26:22
  Speaker 1: day and you will see an enormously big tortoise crawling
• 2:26:25
  Speaker 1: slowly along over the green grass. If you wait long enough,
• 2:26:30
  Speaker 1: you will see a man come up, stoop over, and
• 2:26:32
  Speaker 1: rap gently with his knuckles on her shell. That's the
• 2:26:36
  Speaker 1: tortoise we have been talking about, and that's the man.
• 2:26:41
  Speaker 1: End of section eight recording by James K. White Schula
• 2:26:44
  Speaker 1: Vista end of South American Jungle Tales by Orasio Kiroga,
• 2:26:49
  Speaker 1: translated by Arthur Livingstone.