The Cat and The Dog

There were once a dog and a cat. It was a very rainy day, and some men
were eating their dinner inside their house. The cat sat inside too,
eating her dinner, and the dog sat on the door-step. The cat called
out to the dog, "I am a high-caste person, and you are a very
low-caste person." "Oh," said the dog, "not at all. I am the
high-caste person and you are of very low caste. You eat all the men's
dinner up, and snatch the food from their hands just as they are
putting it into their mouths. And you scratch them, and they beat you;
while I sit away from them, and so they don't beat me. And if they
_give_ me any dinner I'll eat it; but if they don't, I won't." "Oh,"
says the cat, "not a bit of it. I eat nice clean food; but you eat
nasty, dirty food, which the men have thrown away." "No," said the
dog, "I am high caste and you are very low caste, for if I gave you a
slap you would tumble down directly." "No, no!" said the cat. And they
went on disputing and began to fight, till the dog said, "Very well,
let us go to the wise jackal and ask him which of us is the better."
"Good," said the cat. So they went to the jackal and asked him. Said
the cat, "I am of the higher caste, and the dog is of the lower
caste." "No," said the jackal, "the dog is of the higher caste." The
cat said, "No," and the jackal said, "Yes," and they began to fight.
Then the jackal and the dog proposed to go and ask a great big beast
who lived in the jungle and was like a tiger. But the cat said, "I
cannot go near a tiger or anything like one." So then they said, "When
we come near the beast, you can remain behind, and we will go on and
speak to him." So they ran into the jungle, where there was a tiger
who had been lying on the ground with a great thorn sticking in his
foot. When his aunt, the cat, saw him, she scampered off, for she was
dreadfully frightened.

The thorn had given the tiger great pain; for a long while he could
get no one to take it out, so had lain there for days. At last he had
seen a man passing by, to whom he called and said, "Take out this
thorn, and I promise I won't eat you." But the man refused through
fear, saying, "No, I won't, for you will eat me." Three times the
tiger had promised not to eat him; so at last the man took out the
thorn. Then the tiger sprang up and said, "Now I will eat you, for I
am very hungry." "Oh, no, no!" said the man. "What a liar you are! You
promised not to eat me if I would take the thorn out of your foot, and
now that I have done so you say you will eat me." And they began to
fight, and the man said, "If you won't eat me, I will bring you a cow
and a goat." But the tiger refused, saying, "No, I won't eat them; I
will eat you."

At this moment the jackal and the dog came up. And the jackal asked,
"What is the matter? why are you fighting?" So then the man told him
why they were fighting; and the jackal said to the tiger, "I will tell
you a good way of eating the man. Go and fetch a big bag." So the
tiger went and fetched the bag, and brought it to the jackal. Then the
jackal said, "Get inside the bag, and leave its mouth open and I'll
throw the man in to you." So the tiger got inside the bag, and the
jackal, the dog and the man quickly tied it up as tight as they could.
Then they began to beat the tiger with all their might until at last
they killed him. Then the man went home, and the jackal went home, and
the dog went home.