lunged quickly into the water. He swam faster than he had
ever done before, and soon reached the royal palace. Shouts of joy broke
forth from the attendants when he was seen approaching, and some of them
ran to tell the queen that the monkey was there, and that before long
she would be as well as ever she was. In fact, so great was their relief
that they gave the monkey such a kind welcome, and were so anxious to
make him happy and comfortable, that he soon forgot all the fears that
had beset him as to his fate, and was generally quite at his ease,
though every now and then a fit of home-sickness would come over him,
and he would hide himself in some dark corner till it had passed away.

It was during one of these attacks of sadness that a jelly-fish happened
to swim by. At that time jelly-fishes had shells. At the sight of the
gay and lively monkey crouching under a tall rock, with his eyes closed
and his head bent, the jelly-fish was filled with pity, and stopped,
saying, 'Ah, poor fellow, no wonder you weep; a few days more, and they
will come and kill you and give your liver to the queen to eat.'

The monkey shrank back horrified at these words and asked the jelly-fish
what crime he had committed that deserved death.

'Oh, none at all,' replied the jelly-fish, 'but your liver is the only
thing that will cure our queen, and how can we get at it without killing
you? You had better submit to your fate, and make no noise about it, for
though I pity you from my heart there is no way of helping you.' Then he
went away, leaving the ape cold with horror.

At first he felt as if his liver was already being taken from his body,
but soon he began to wonder if there was no means of escaping this
terrible death, and at length he invented a plan which he thought would
do. For a few days he pretended to be gay and happy as before, but when
the sun went in, and rain fell in torrents, he wept and howled from dawn
to dark, till the turtle, who was his head keeper, heard him, and came
to see what was the matter. Then the monkey told him that before he left
home he had hung his liver out on a bush to dry, and if it was always
going to rain like this it would become quite useless. And the rogue
made such a fuss and moaning that he would have melted a heart of stone,
and nothing would content him but that somebody should carry him back to
land and let him fetch his liver again.

The queen's councillors were not the wisest of people, a