"I am thy servant and friend for all time."

"It is well," answered the Serpent. "Lead the way."

Accordingly Goat led Serpent to the scene of the combat, and the latter
coiled itself in position, as Goat had advised, on the leafy top of a
young bush.

Presently Lion came, with a long line of servile animals, bearing one
hundred bunches of bananas; and, after dismissing them, he turned to the
Goat, and said:

"Well, Goatee, where is your friend who is stronger than I am? I feel
curious to see him."

"Are you Lion?" asked a sibilant voice from the top of a bush.

"Yes, I am; and who are you that do not know me?"

"I am Serpent, friend Lion, and short of sight and slow of movement.
Advance nearer to me, for I see you not."

Lion uttered a loud roaring laugh, and went confidently near the
Serpent--who had raised his crest and arched his neck--so near that his
breath seemed to blow the slender form to a tremulous movement.

"You shake already," said Lion, mockingly.

"Yes, I shake but to strike the better, my friend," said Serpent, as he
darted forward and fixed his fangs in the right eyebrow of Lion, and at
the same moment its body glided round the neck of Lion, and became
buried out of sight in the copious mane.

Like the pain of fire the deadly venom was felt quickly in the head and
body. When it reached the heart, Lion fell down and lay still and dead.

"Well done," cried Goat, as he danced around the pile of bananas.
"Provisions for three moons have I, and this doughty roarer is of no
more value than a dead goat."

Goat and Serpent then vowed friendship for one another, after which
Serpent said:

"Now follow me, and obey. I have a little work for you."

"Work! What work, O Serpent?"

"It is light and agreeable. If you follow that path, you will find a
village of mankind. You will there proclaim to the people what I have
done, and show this carcase to them. In return for this they will make
much of you, and you will find abundance of food in their gardens--
tender leaves of manioc and peanut, mellow bananas, and plenty of rich
greens daily. True, when you are fat and a feast is to be made, they
will kill you and eat you; but, for all your kind, comfort, plenty, and
warm, dry housing is more agreeable than the cold damp jungle, and
destruction by the feral beasts."

"Nay, neither the work nor the fate is grievous, and I thank you, O
Serpent; but for you there can be no other home than the