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Read Ebook: Evening Tales by Ortoli Jean Baptiste Fr D Ric Harris Joel Chandler Translator
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Ebook has 1331 lines and 39323 words, and 27 pages
"Do you see this foot?" he exclaimed. "If I hit you with it, you will think a thunderbolt has struck you."
Then he kicked her with the left foot, and it also stuck like the other, and Brother Rabbit held fast his Guinea negro.
"Watch out, now!" he cried. "I've already butted a great many people with my head. If I butt you in your ugly face I'll knock it into a jelly. Turn me loose! Oho! you don't answer?" Bap!
"Guinea girl!" exclaimed Brother Rabbit, "are you dead? Gracious goodness! how my head does stick!"
When the sun rose, Brother Goat went to his well to find out something about Brother Rabbit. The result was beyond his expectations.
"Hey, little rogue, big rogue!" exclaimed Brother Goat. "Hey, Brother Rabbit! what are you doing there? I thought you drank the dew from the cups of the flowers, or milk from the cows. Aha, Brother Rabbit! I will punish you for stealing my water."
"I am your friend," said Brother Rabbit; "don't kill me."
"Thief, thief!" cried Brother Goat, and then he ran quickly into the woods, gathered up a pile of dry limbs, and made a great fire. He took Brother Rabbit from the tar-doll, and prepared to burn him alive. As he was passing a thicket of brambles with Brother Rabbit on his shoulders, Brother Goat met his daughter B?l?die, who was walking about in the fields.
"Where are you going, papa, muffled up with such a burden? Come and eat the fresh grass with me, and throw wicked Brother Rabbit in the brambles."
Cunning Brother Rabbit raised his long ears and pretended to be very much frightened.
"Oh, no, Brother Goat!" he cried. "Don't throw me in the brambles. They will tear my flesh, put out my eyes, and pierce my heart. Oh, I pray you, rather throw me in the fire."
"Aha, little rogue, big rogue! Aha, Brother Rabbit!" exclaimed Brother Goat, exultingly, "you don't like the brambles? Well, then, go and laugh in them," and he threw Brother Rabbit in without a feeling of pity.
Brother Rabbit fell in the brambles, leaped to his feet, and began to laugh.
"Ha-ha-ha! Brother Goat, what a simpleton you are!--ha-ha-ha! A better bed I never had! In these brambles I was born!"
Brother Goat was in despair, but he could not help himself. Brother Rabbit was safe.
A long beard is not always a sign of intelligence.
TEENCHY DUCK
Once upon a time there lived in a village in some country , an old man and an old woman who were very poor indeed. They had never been able to save a single penny. They had no farm, not even a garden. They had nothing but a little Duck that walked around on her two feet every day, singing the song of famine. "Quack! quack! Who will give me a piece of bread? Quack! quack! Who will give me a piece of bread?" This little Duck was so small that she was named Teenchy Duck.
It so happened one day that Teenchy Duck was paddling in the water near the river's edge when she saw a fine purse filled with gold. At once she began to flap her wings and cry: "Quack! quack! Who has lost his beautiful money? Quack! quack! Who has lost his beautiful money?"
Just at that moment the Prince of the Seven Golden Cows passed along the road. He was richer than all the kings and emperors, but he was mean and miserly. He walked along with a stick in his hand, and as he walked he counted in his mind the millions that he had stored away in his strong-box.
"Quack! quack! Who lost his beautiful money? Quack! quack! Who lost his beautiful money?" cried Teenchy Duck.
"I have lost it," brazenly exclaimed the Prince of the Seven Golden Cows, and then he seized the purse full of money that Teenchy Duck held in her bill, and went on his way.
The poor Puddle Duck was so astonished at this that she could scarcely stand on her feet.
"Well, well!" she exclaimed, "that rich lord has kept all for himself and given me nothing. May he be destroyed by a pestilence!"
Teenchy Duck at once ran to her master, and told him what had happened. When her master learned the value of what Teenchy Duck had found, and the trick that had been played on her by the Prince of the Seven Golden Cows, he went into a violent rage.
"Why, you big simpleton!" he exclaimed, "you find money and you do not bring it to us? You give it to a big lord, who did not lose it, when we poor people need it, so much. Go out of this house instantly, and don't dare to come back until you have brought me the purse of gold!"
Unfortunate Teenchy Duck trembled in all her limbs, and made herself small and humble; but she found voice to say:
"You are right, my master! I go at once to find the Prince of the Seven Golden Cows."
But once out of doors the poor Puddle Duck thought to herself sorrowfully: "How and where can I find the Prince who was so mean as to steal the beautiful money?"
Teenchy Duck was so bewildered that she began to strike her head against the rocks in despair. Suddenly an idea came into her mind. She would follow his tracks, and the marks that his walking-stick made in the ground until she came to the castle of the Prince of the Seven Golden Cows.
No sooner thought than done. Teenchy Duck went waddling down the road in the direction taken by the miserly Prince, crying, with all her might:
"Quack! quack! Give me back my beautiful money! Quack! quack! Give me back my beautiful money!"
Brother Fox, who was taking his ease a little way from the road, heard Teenchy Duck's cries, and knew her voice. He went to her and said:
"What in the world is the matter with you, my poor Teenchy Duck? You look sad and broken-hearted."
"I have good reason to be," said Teenchy Duck. "This morning, while paddling in the river, I found a purse full of gold, and gave it to the Prince of the Seven Golden Cows, thinking it was his. But now, here comes my master and asks me for it, and says he will kill me if I do not bring it to him pretty soon."
"Well, where are you going in this style?" asked Brother Fox.
"I am going straight to the Prince of the Seven Golden Cows," said Teenchy Duck.
"Shall I go with you?" asked Brother Fox.
"I'd be only too glad if you would," exclaimed Teenchy Duck.
"But how can I go?" said Brother Fox.
"Get in my satchel," said Teenchy Duck, "and I'll carry you the best I know how."
"It isn't big enough," said Brother Fox.
"It will stretch," said Teenchy Duck. So Brother Fox got in the satchel, and Teenchy Duck went waddling along the road, crying: "Quack! quack! Give me back my beautiful money!"
She had not gone far when she met Brother Wolf, who was passing that way.
"What are you crying so for?" he inquired. "One would think you were going to die on the journey."
"It is only too true," said Teenchy Duck, and then she told Brother Wolf about finding the money-purse, just as she had told Brother Fox.
"Perhaps I can be of some service to you," said Brother Wolf. "Shall I go with you?"
"I am willing," said Teenchy Duck.
"But how can I go so far?" Brother Wolf asked.
"Get in my satchel," said Teenchy Duck, "and I'll carry you as I can."
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