a tree, put the fish
into the pot, and set the pot on the fire. "I have not bathed for some
days," said the Raja. "I will go and bathe while you cook the fish,
and when I come back we will eat it." So he went to bathe, and the
Rani sat watching the fish. Presently she thought, "If I leave the lid
on the pot, the fish will dry up and burn." Then she took off the lid,
and the fish instantly jumped out of the pot into the tank and swam
away. This made the Rani sad; but she sat there quiet and silent. When
the Raja had bathed, he returned to his wife, and said, "Now we will
eat our fish." The Rani answered, "I had not eaten for four days, and
was very hungry, so I ate all the fish." "Never mind," said the Raja,
"it does not matter."

They wandered on, and the next day came to another jungle where they
saw two pigeons. The Raja took some grass and sticks, and made a bow
and arrow. He shot the pigeons with these, and the Rani plucked and
cleaned them. Her husband and she made a little fire, put the pigeons
in their pot, and set them on it. There was a tank near. "Now I will
go and bathe," said the Rani; "I have not bathed for some days. When I
come back, we will eat the pigeons." So she went to bathe, and the
Raja sat down to watch the pigeons. Presently he thought, "If I leave
the pot shut, the birds will dry up and burn." So he took off the lid,
and instantly away flew the pigeons out of the pot. He guessed at once
what the fish had done yesterday, and sat still and silent till the
Rani came back. "I have eaten the pigeons in the same way that you ate
the fish yesterday," he said to her. The Rani understood what had
happened, and saw the Raja knew how the fish had escaped.

So they wandered on; and as they went the Rani remembered an oil
merchant, called Ganga Teli, a friend of theirs, and a great man, just
like a Raja. "Let us go to Ganga Teli, if we can walk as far as his
house," she said. "He will be good to us." He lived a long way off.
When they got to him, Ganga Teli knew them at once. "What has
happened?" he said. "You were a great Raja; why are you and the Rani
so poor and dressed like fakirs?" "It is God's will," they answered.
Ganga Teli did not think it worth while to notice them much now they
were poor; so, though he did not send them away, he gave them a
wretched room to live in, a wretched bed to lie on, and such bad food
to eat that, hungry as they were, they could not touch it. "When we
were rich," they s