been too clever for you this time, and you will have to do without my heart for many a long day to come. And as to the hearts of those other Monkeys that I promised to you—well, you can just wait till you find them for yourself."[1]
The Tortoise, on hearing these words, fell into a violent passion, and made several efforts to climb the tree in order to punish the Monkey, but being quite unable to climb at all, he soon gave up his attempt and determined to get even with the Monkey in some other way. So he hid himself in the water until evening, and as soon as it was dusk he came out on the land and proceeded very quietly to the cave where he and the Monkey had lived together, and concealed himself in the darkest corner of it waiting till the Monkey should come in.
The Monkey, however, was a good deal too clever to be caught in a simple trap like this. When his usual bedtime arrived, he came to the mouth of the cave and, looking in, he called out in a loud voice:
"Oh, great cave! great cave!"
The Tortoise lay low in his dark corner and gave no sign of life.
After a few moments' silence the Monkey again called out:
"Oh, great cave! great cave!"
Still the Tortoise lay low and gave no sign.
"Curious thing," said the Monkey to himself in an audible tone of voice, "very curious! There used always to be an echo in this cave, but I can't hear the slightest
- ↑ The Monkey's actual words, I regret to say, cannot be reported verbatim.
