2l6 NATURE STUDY. 



to buy some food. All there was left in the house was a tiny piece 

 of meat, which he threw to the cat, sa)dng : " Pussy, ptissy, here 

 is a great treat for you!" But pussy had her one ear turned the 

 other way, and did not hear him ; neither did she hear a little 

 mouse that was nibbling in the wall close beside her. So she sat 

 still, licking her hungry chops. The dog lay before the fire, fast 

 asleep. " Come, come, old fellow! You may go, too," called Zek- 

 ko. But the dog's one ear was under his head, and he could not 

 hear. Sorry enough he was when he awoke and found that his 

 master had gone off without him. 



" Now," said Zekko, as he jumped on his donkey's back, "take 

 me down the valley." But the donkey thought that Zekko said : 

 " Now take me up to the top of the mountain ; " so up the moun- 

 tain he went, and his mastar could not stop him. Zekko had never 

 been anyvrhere except down the valley and back by a road that ran 

 along the bank of a riishing river. And so it happened that he had 

 never heard the birds sing, for in the morning when he went down, 

 his ear was turned toward the roaring water ; and although, when 

 he came back, his ear was turned toward the woods, by that time 

 evening had always come and the birds were asleep with their heads 

 under their wings. 



Now, as he rode up the mountain, he heard for the first time the 

 sweet singing of the birds, and he was so enchanted by it that he 

 forgot all about the food which he had intended to buy, and stayed 

 on the moimtain all day. 



The next morning very early, before the cat and dog were up, he 

 started on his important errand. This time he was careful to talk 

 into the donkey's ear, so that there could be no mistake ; for, al- 

 though he would much rather go up the mountain to hear the birds 

 sing than down the valley to buy food, he knew that he must not 

 starve himself, his dog, and his donkey. 



But as he rode along by the river it suddenly occurred to him 

 that the birds might be singing in the woods — indeed, it was more 

 than likely. How charming it would be to hear them ! Oh, if he 

 only had an ear on that side of his head ! Why was he not born 

 with two ears instead of one ? So he longed for an ear, and longed 

 and longed, all the way down the valley, until just as he reached 

 the end — wonder of wonders ! — a little ear had begun to grow just 

 where there ought to be one. Every time he rode down the valley 

 he listened so hard to hear the birds singing, that by the end of 

 the week his new ear had grown as big as his old one. 



Then he began to take walks through the woods all by himself. 



