delightedly explaining and showing off his new possession. The
king, however, did not share his pleasure at all, but called up a
soldier to shoot the tiger, much to the relief of all the inmates of the
serai except Moti. If the king, however, was before convinced that Moti
was one of the wisest of men, he was now still more convinced that he
was the bravest, and he increased his pay a hundredfold, so that our
hero thought that he was the luckiest of men.

A week or two after this incident the king sent for Moti, who on arrival
found his master in despair. A neighbouring monarch, he explained, who
had many more soldiers than he, had declared war against him, and he was
at his wits' end, for he had neither money to buy him off nor soldiers
enough to fight him--what was he to do?

'If that is all, don't you trouble,' said Moti. 'Turn out your men, and
I'll go with them, and we'll soon bring this robber to reason.'

The king began to revive at these hopeful words, and took Moti off to
his stable where he bade him choose for himself any horse he liked.
There were plenty of fine horses in the stalls, but to the king's
astonishment Moti chose a poor little rat of a pony that was used to
carry grass and water for the rest of the stable.

'But why do you choose that beast?' said the king.

'Well, you see, your majesty,' replied Moti, 'there are so many chances
that I may fall off, and if I choose one of your fine big horses I shall
have so far to fall that I shall probably break my leg or my arm, if not
my neck, but if I fall off this little beast I can't hurt myself much.'

A very comical sight was Moti when he rode out to the war. The only
weapon he carried was his staff, and to help him to keep his balance
on horseback he had tied to each of his ankles a big stone that nearly
touched the ground as he sat astride the little pony. The rest of the
king's cavalry were not very numerous, but they pranced along in armour
on fine horses. Behind them came a great rabble of men on foot armed
with all sorts of weapons, and last of all was the king with his
attendants, very nervous and ill at ease. So the army started.

They had not very far to go, but Moti's little pony, weighted with a
heavy man and two big rocks, soon began to lag behind the cavalry,
and would have lagged behind the infantry too, only they were not very
anxious to be too early in the fight, and hung back so as to give Moti
plenty of time. The young man jogged