t he saw nothing, and rejoice the hidden puma's heart
by seeming to walk straight into the snare, when, lo! a loud laugh
would be heard, and the monkey's grinning face would peer out of a
mass of creepers and disappear before his foe could reach him.

This state of things had gone on for quite a long while, when at last
there came a season such as the oldest parrot in the forest could
never remember. Instead of two or three hundred inches of rain
falling, which they were all accustomed to, month after month passed
without a cloud, and the rivers and springs dried up, till there was
only one small pool left for everyone to drink from. There was not an
animal for miles round that did not grieve over this shocking
condition of affairs, not one at least except the puma. His only
thought for years had been how to get the monkey into his power, and
this time he imagined his chance had really arrived. He would hide
himself in a thicket, and when the monkey came down to drink--and come
he must--the puma would spring out and seize him. Yes, on this
occasion there could be no escape!

And no more there would have been if the puma had had greater
patience; but in his excitement he moved a little too soon. The
monkey, who was stooping to drink, heard a rustling, and turning
caught the gleam of two yellow, murderous eyes. With a mighty spring
he grasped a creeper which was hanging above him, and landed himself
on the branch of a tree; feeling the breath of the puma on his feet as
the animal bounded from his cover. Never had the monkey been so near
death, and it was some time before he recovered enough courage to
venture on the ground again.

Up there in the shelter of the trees, he began to turn over in his
head plans for escaping the snares of the puma. And at length chance
helped him. Peeping down to the earth, he saw a man coming along the
path carrying on his head a large gourd filled with honey.

He waited till the man was just underneath the tree, then he hung from
a bough, and caught the gourd while the man looked up wondering, for
he was no tree-climber. Then the monkey rubbed the honey all over him,
and a quantity of leaves from a creeper that was hanging close by; he
stuck them all close together into the honey, so that he looked like a
walking bush. This finished, he ran to the pool to see the result,
and, quite pleased with himself, set out in search of adventures.

Soon the report went through the forest that a new