“Oh, yes,” replied the Mouse; “but, you see, the season is near to an end now, and when I want more nuts I must go and gather them from the tree. Look, now! Why do you not go there also? That is the tree, close by.”
“Ah me, I cannot escape, woe to me! Look at my wings,” said the Cock, “they are worn to bristles—and as to the beard on my breast, my chief ornament, alas! it is all crumpled and uneven, so much have I tried to fly out and so hard have I pushed against the bars. As for the door, my grandmother claps that shut and fastens it tightly with thongs, be you sure, as soon as ever she finishes the feeding of me!”
“Ha! ha!” exclaimed the Mouse. “If that’s all, there’s nothing easier than to open that. Look at my teeth; I even crack the hard nuts with these scrapers of mine! Wait!” He ran nimbly up the wicket and soon gnawed through the holding-string. “There! comrade father; push open the door, you are bigger than I, and we will go nutting.”
“Thanks this day,” cried the Cock, and shoving the wicket open, he ran forth cackling and crowing for gladness.
Then the Mouse led the way to the tree. Up the trunk he ran, and climbed and climbed until he came to the topmost boughs. “Ha! the nuts are fine and ripe up here,” he shouted.
But the Tâkâkâ fluttered and flew all in vain; his wings were so worn he could not win even to the lowermost branches. “Oh! have pity on me, comrade child! Cut off some of the nuts and throw them down to me, do! My wings are so worn I cannot fly any better than the grandmother’s old dog, who is my neighbor over there.”
“Be patient, be patient, father!” exclaimed the Mouse. “I am cracking a big one for you as fast as I can. There, catch it!” and he threw a fat nut close to the Cock, who gleefully devoured the kernel and, without so much as thanks, called for more.
“Wait, father,” said the Mouse. “There! Stand right under me, so. Now, catch it; this is a big one!” Saying which the Mouse crawled out until he was straight over the Cock. “Now, then,” said he, “watch in front!” and he let fall the nut. It hit the Cock on the head so hard that it bruised the skin off and stunned the old Tâkâkâ so that he fell over and died for a short time, utterly forgetting.
“Té mi thlo kô thlo kwa!” shouted the Mouse, as he hurried down the tree. “A little waiting, and lo! What my foe would do to me, I to him do, indeed!” Whereupon he ran across, before ever the Cock had opened an eye, and gnawed his bristles off so short that they never could grow again. “There, now!” said the Mouse. “Lo! thus healed is my heart, and my enemy is even as he made me, bereft of distinction!” Then he ran back to his cellar, satisfied.
Finally the Cock opened his eyes. “Ah me, my head!” he exclaimed. Then, moaning, he staggered to his feet, and in doing so he espied the nut. It was smooth and round, like a brown egg. When the Cock saw it he fell to lamenting more loudly than ever: “Oh, my head! Tâ‑kâ‑kâ‑kâ‑â‑â!” But the top of his head kept bleeding and swelling until it was all covered over with welts of gore, and it grew so heavy, withal, that the Tâkâkâ thought he would surely die. So off to his grandmother he went, lamenting all the way.
Hearing him, the grandmother opened the door, and cried: “What now?”
“Oh, my grandmother, ah me! I am murdered!” he answered. “A great, round, hard seed was dropped on my head by a little creature with a short, one-feathered tail, who came and told me that it was good to eat and—oh! my head is all bleeding and swollen! By the light of your favor, bind my wound for me lest, alas, I die!”
“Served you right! Why did you leave your place, knowing better?” cried the old woman. “I will not bind your head unless you give me your very bristles of manhood, that you may remember your lesson!”
“Oh! take them, grandmother!” cried the Cock; but when he looked down, alas! the beard of his breast, the glory of his kind, was all gone. “Ah me! ah me! What shall I do?” he again cried. But the old woman told him that unless he brought her at least four bristles she would not cure him, and forthwith she shut the door.
So the poor Cock slowly staggered back toward his corral, hoping to find some of the hairs that had been gnawed off. As he passed the little lodge of his neighbor, the Dog, he caught sight of old Wahtsita’s fine muzzle-beard. “Ha!” thought he. Then he told the Dog his tale, and begged of him four hairs—“only four!”
“You great, pampered noisemaker, give me some bread, then, fine bread, and I will give you the hairs.” Whereupon the Cock thought, and went to the house of a Trader of Foodstuffs; and he told him also the tale.
“Well, then, bring me some wood with which I may heat the oven to bake the bread,” said the Trader of Foodstuffs.
The Cock went to some Woods near by. “Oh, ye Beloved of the Trees, drop me dry branches!” And with this he told the Trees his tale; but the Trees shook their leaves and said: “No rain has fallen, and all our branches will soon be dry. Beseech the Waters that they give us drink, then we will gladly give you wood.”
Then the
