Children Stories - The Cub's Triumph

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The Cub's Triumph

from Boys And Girls Bookshelf - JAPANESE AND OTHER ORIENTAL TALES]

Once upon a time there lived in a forest a badger and a mother fox with
one little Cub.

There were no other beasts in the wood, because the hunters had killed
them all with bows and arrows, or by setting snares. The deer, and the
wild boar, the hares, the weasels, and the stoats--even the bright
little squirrels--had been shot, or had fallen into traps. At last, only
the badger and the fox, with her young one, were left, and they were
starving, for they dared not venture from their holes for fear of the
traps.

They did not know what to do, or where to turn for food. At last the
badger said:

"I have thought of a plan. I will pretend to be dead. You must change
yourself into a man, and take me into the town and sell me. With the
money you get for me, you must buy food and bring it into the forest.
When I get a chance I will run away, and come back to you, and we will
eat our dinner together. Mind you wait for me, and don't eat any of it
until I come. Next week it will be your turn to be dead, and my turn to
sell--do you see?"

The fox thought this plan would do very well; so, as soon as the badger
had lain down and pretended to be dead, she said to her little Cub:

"Be sure not to come out of the hole until I come back. Be very good and
quiet, and I will soon bring you some nice dinner."

She then changed herself into a wood-cutter, took the badger by the
heels and swung him over her shoulders, and trudged off into the town.
There she sold the badger for a fair price, and with the money bought
some fish, some tofu,[M] and some vegetables. She then ran back to the
forest as fast as she could, changed herself into a fox again, and crept
into her hole to see if little Cub was all right. Little Cub was there,
safe enough, but very hungry, and wanted to begin upon the tofu at
once.

[M] Curd made from white beans.

"No, no," said the mother fox. "Fair play's a jewel. We must wait for
the badger."

Soon the badger arrived, quite out of breath with running so fast.

"I hope you haven't been eating any of the dinner," he panted. "I could
not get away sooner. The man you sold me to brought his wife to look at
me, and boasted how cheap he had bought me. You should have asked twice
as much. At last they left me alone, and then I jumped up and ran away
as fast as I could."

The badger, the fox, and the Cub now sat down to dinner, and had a fine
feast, the badger taking care to get the best bits for himself.

Some days after, when all the food was finished, and they had begun to
get hungry again, the badger said to the fox:

"Now it's your turn to die." So the fox pretended to be dead, and the
badger changed himself into a hunter, shouldered the fox, and went off
to the town, where he made a good bargain, and sold her for a nice

little sum of money.

You have seen, already that the badger was greedy and selfish. What do
you think he did now? He wished to have all the money, and all the food
it would buy for himself, so he whispered to the man who had bought the
fox:

"That fox is only pretending to be dead; take care he doesn't run away."

"We'll soon settle that," said the man, and he knocked the fox on the
head with a big stick, and killed her.

The badger next laid out the money in buying all the nice things he
could think of. He carried them off to the forest, and there ate them
all up himself, without giving one bit to the poor little Cub, who was
all alone, crying for its mother, very sad, and very hungry.

Poor little motherless Cub! But, being a clever little fox, he soon
began to put two and two together, and at last felt quite sure that the
badger had, in some way, caused the loss of his mother.

He made up his mind that he would punish the badger; and, as he was not
big enough or strong enough to do it by force, he was obliged to try
another plan.

He did not let the badger see how angry he was with him, but said in a
friendly way:

"Let us have a game of changing ourselves into men. If you can change
yourself so cleverly that I cannot find you out, you will have won the
game; but, if I change myself so that you cannot find me out, then I
shall have won the game. I will begin, if you like; and, you may be
sure, I shall turn myself into somebody very grand while I am about it."

The badger agreed. So then, instead of changing himself at all, the
cunning little Cub just went and hid himself behind a tree, and watched
to see what would happen. Presently there came along the bridge leading
into the town a nobleman, seated in a sedan-chair, a great crowd of
servants and men at arms following him.

The badger was quite sure that this must be the fox, so he ran up to the
sedan-chair, put in his head, and cried:

"I've found you out! I've won the game!"

"A badger! A badger! Off with his head," cried the nobleman.

So one of the retainers cut off the badger's head with one blow of his
sharp sword, the little Cub all the time laughing unseen behind the
tree.

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