By and by the little Jackal came dancing home, happy and care-free,—­but looking all around.  Presently, as he came along, he saw that the ground was all scratched up as if something very heavy had been dragged over it.  The little Jackal stopped and looked.

“What’s this? what’s this?” he said.

Then he saw that the door of his house was crushed at the sides and broken, as if something very big had gone through it.

“What’s this?  What’s this?” the little Jackal said.  “I think I’ll investigate a little!”

So he stood quite still and began to talk to himself (you remember, it was a little way he had), but loudly.  He said,—­

“How strange that my little House doesn’t speak to me!  Why don’t you speak to me, little House?  You always speak to me, if everything is all right, when I come home.  I wonder if anything is wrong with my little House?”

The old Alligator thought to himself that he must certainly pretend to be the little House, or the little Jackal would never come in.  So he put on as pleasant a voice as he could (which is not saying much) and said,—­

“Hullo, little Jackal!”

Oh! when the little Jackal heard that, he was frightened enough, for once.

“It’s the old Alligator,” he said, “and if I don’t make an end of him this time he will certainly make an end of me.  What shall I do?”

He thought very fast.  Then he spoke out pleasantly.

“Thank you, little House,” he said, “it’s good to hear your pretty voice, dear little House, and I will be in with you in a minute; only first I must gather some firewood for dinner.”

Then he went and gathered firewood, and more firewood, and more firewood; and he piled it all up solid against the door and round the house; and then he set fire to it!

And it smoked and burned till it smoked that old Alligator to smoked herring!

THE LARKS IN THE CORNFIELD

There was once a family of little Larks who lived with their mother in a nest in a cornfield.  When the corn was ripe the mother Lark watched very carefully to see if there were any sign of the reapers’ coming, for she knew that when they came their sharp knives would cut down the nest and hurt the baby Larks.  So every day, when she went out for food, she told the little Larks to look and listen very closely to everything that went on, and to tell her all they saw and heard when she came home.

One day when she came home the little Larks were much frightened.

“Oh, Mother, dear Mother,” they said, “you must move us away to-night!  The farmer was in the field to-day, and he said, `The corn is ready to cut; we must call in the neighbors to help.’  And then he told his son to go out to-night and ask all the neighbors to come and reap the corn to-morrow.”

The mother Lark laughed.  “Don’t be frightened,” she said; “if he waits for his neighbors to reap the corn we shall have plenty of time to move; tell me what he says to-morrow.”