My Dark Companions Part 14

A Terrapin and a Crane were one time travelling together very sociably.

They began their conversation by the Terrapin asking:

"How is your family to-day, Miss Crane?"

"Oh, very well. Mamma, who is getting old, complains now and then, that's all."

"But do you know that it strikes me that she is very fat?" said Terrapin. "Now a thought has just entered my head, which I beg to propose to you. My mother, too, is ailing, and I am rather tired of hearing her complaints day after day; but she is exceedingly lean and tough, though there is plenty of her. I wonder what you will say to my plan? We are both hungry. So let us go and kill your mother, and eat her; and to-morrow, you will come to me, and we will kill my mother. We thus shall be supplied with meat for some days."

Replied the Crane, "I like the idea greatly, and agree to it. Let us go about it at once, for hunger is an exacting mistress, and the days of fasting are more frequent than those of fulness."

The matricides turned upon their tracks, and, arriving at the house of Mrs Crane, the two cruel creatures seized upon Mamma Crane, and put her to death. They then plucked her clean, and placed her body in the stew-pot, and both Terrapin and Crane feasted.

Terrapin then crawled home, leaving Crane to sleep, and the process of digestion. But, alas! Crane soon became very ill. Whether some qualms of conscience disturbed digestion or not, I cannot say, but she pa.s.sed a troublesome night, and for several days afterwards she did not stir from her house.

Terrapin, on reaching the house of its mamma, which was in the hollow of a tree, cried out:

"Tu-no-no-no!" upon which Mrs Terrapin said, "Oh, that is my child,"

and she let down a cord, to which young Terrapin made himself fast, and was a.s.sisted to the nest where the parent had already prepared a nice supper for him.

Several days later, Terrapin was proceeding through the woods to the pool where he was accustomed to bathe, when at the water-side he met Miss Crane apparently quite spruce and strong again.

She hailed Terrapin and said, "Oh, here you are, at last. I have been waiting to see you for some time."

"Yes," replied Terrapin, "here I am, and you--how do you feel now? My neighbours told me you were very ill."

"I am all right again," said Miss Crane, "but I think my old ma disagreed with me, and I was quite poorly for some days; but I am now anxious to know when you are going to keep your part of the bargain which we made."

"What--you mean about the disposing of my old ma?"

"Yes, to be sure," answered Crane, "I feel quite hungry."

"Well, well. Bargains should always be kept, for if the blood-oath be broken misfortune follows. Your mother's death rests on my head, and I mean to return your hospitality with interest, otherwise, may my sh.e.l.l be soon empty of its tenant. Stay here awhile and I will bring her."

So saying, Terrapin departed, and crept to where he had secretly stowed a quant.i.ty of india-rubber, in readiness for the occasion. After taking out quite a ma.s.s of it, he returned to the pond, where Miss Crane stood on one leg, expectant and winking pleasantly.

"I fear, sister Crane," said Terrapin, as he laid his burden down, "that you will find my old ma tough. She turned out to be much leaner than I antic.i.p.ated. There is no more fat on her bones, than there is on my back. But now, fall to, and welcome. There is plenty there. I am not hungry myself, as I have just finished my dinner."

Miss Crane, with her empty stomach, was not fastidious, and stepped out eagerly to the feast so faithfully provided, and began to tear away at what Terrapin had brought. The rubber, however, stretched by the greedy Crane, suddenly flew from her foot, and rebounding, struck her in the face a smart blow.

"Oh! oh!" cried Crane, confused with the blow. "Your old ma is most tough."

"Yes, she is. I suspected she would prove a little tough," answered Terrapin, with a chuckle. "But don't be bashful. Eat away, and welcome."

Again Miss Crane tugged at the rubber to tear it, but the more it was stretched, the more severe were the shocks she received, and her left eye was almost blinded.

"Well, I never," exclaimed Miss Crane. "She is too tough altogether."

"Try again," cried Terrapin. "Try again; little by little, it is said, a fly eats a cow's tail. You will get a rare and tender bit in time."

Miss Crane thus pressed, did so, and seizing a piece lay back, and drew on it so hard that when the rubber at last slipped, it bounded back with such force, that she was sent sprawling to the ground.

"Why, what is the matter?" asked Terrapin, pretending to be astonished.

"She is tough, I admit; but loh! our family are famous for toughness.

However, the tougher it is, the longer it lasts on the stomach. Try again, sister Crane; I warrant you will manage it next time."

"Oh, bother your old ma. Eat her yourself. I have had enough of that kind of meat."

"You give it up, do you?" cried Terrapin. "Well, well, it is a pity to throw good meat away. Maybe, if I keep it longer it will get tenderer by and by."

They thus parted, Terrapin bearing his share of rubber away in one direction, and Miss Crane sadly disgusted, striding grandly off in another, but looking keenly about for something to satisfy her hunger.

When she had gone a great distance a parrot flew across her path, and perching on a branch near her, cried out, "Oh, royal bird, say since when has rubber become the food of the bird-king's family?"

"What do you mean, Parrot?" she asked.

"Well, I saw you tearing at a piece of rubber just now, and when you marched off Terrapin carried it away, and I heard him say--because he has a habit of speaking his thoughts aloud--Oh, how stupid my sister Crane is! She thinks my ma is dead. Ho, ho, ho! what a stupid! And all the way he chuckled and laughed as though he was filled with plantain wine."

"Is his ma not dead then?" asked Miss Crane.

"Dead! Not a bit of it," replied Parrot. "I saw old Ma Terrapin but a moment ago as I flew by her tree, waiting for her son, and the cord is ready for his cry of 'Tu-no-no-no. Ano-no-no. We-no-no-no!'"

"Ah, Parrot, your words are good. When we know what another is saying behind our backs, we discover the workings of his heart. The words of Terrapin are like the bush that covers the trap. Good-by, Parrot. When we next meet, we shall have another story to tell."

On the next day, Terrapin observed Miss Crane approaching his house, and he advanced a little way to meet her.

"Well, sister Crane, I hope you are all right this morning?" he asked.

"Oh yes, so so, brother Terrapin. But you must excuse me just now; I've heard bad news from my family. A brother and sister of mine are suddenly taken ill, and I am bound to go and visit them," answered Crane.

"Ah, Miss Crane, that reminds me of my own brother and sister, who are much younger than I am, but very soft and tender. What do you say now to making another bargain?" asked Terrapin with a wink.

"You are very good, Terrapin. I will think of it as I go along. I shall be back before noon to-morrow, and we will talk of a trade then."

They were very civil to one another as they parted. Terrapin went for his usual walk to the pond, Miss Crane proceeded to visit her family, but muttered:

"Ha, ha, Terrapin, you are great at a trade; but you will not make another with me in a hurry till our first one is squared."

After she had gone a little way she turned suddenly round and came back to the foot of Terrapin's tree, and cried,

"Tu-no-no-no. Ano-no-no-no. We-no-no-no!"

"Ah, that is my child's voice," said Ma Terrapin to herself, and let down the cord.

Miss Crane caught hold and climbed up towards the nest. Ma Terrapin craned her neck out far to welcome her child, but before she could discover by what means little Terrapin had changed its dress, Miss Crane struck Ma Terrapin with her long sharp bill in the place where the neck joins the shoulder, and in a short time Ma Terrapin was as dead as Miss Crane's own mother.

The body was rolled from the nest, and it went falling down, and Miss Crane slid quickly after it.

In a quiet place screened by thick bushes Miss Crane made a great fire, with which Ma Terrapin's thick sh.e.l.l was cracked. She then scooped out the flesh, and carried it to her own home, and stowed it in a big black pot.