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There was once a crab who lived in a hole on the shady side of a
mountain. She was a very good housewife, and so careful and
industrious that there was no creature in the whole country whose
hole was so neat and clean as hers, and she took great pride in it.
One day she saw lying near the mouth of her hole a handful of
cooked rice which some pilgrim must have let fall when he was
stopping to eat his dinner. Delighted at this discovery, she hastened
to the spot, and was carrying the rice back to her hole when a
monkey, who lived in some trees near by, came down to see what
the crab was doing. His eyes shone at the sight of the rice, for it
was his favourite food, and like the sly fellow he was, he proposed
a bargain to the crab. She was to give him half the rice in exchange
for the kernel of a sweet red kaki fruit which he had just eaten. He
half expected that the crab would laugh in his face at this impudent
proposal, but instead of doing so she only looked at him for a
moment with her head on one side and then said that she would
agree to the exchange. So the monkey went off with his rice, and
the crab returned to her hole with the kernel.
For some time the crab saw no more of the monkey, who had gone
to pay a visit on the sunny side of the mountain; but one morning he
happened to pass by her hole, and found her sitting under the
shadow of a beautiful kaki tree.
'Good day,' he said politely, 'you have some very fine fruit there! I
am very hungry, could you spare me one or two?'
'Oh, certainly,' replied the crab, 'but you must forgive me if I cannot
get them for you myself. I am no tree-climber.'
'Pray do not apologise,' answered the monkey. 'Now that I have
your permission I can get them myself quite easily.' And the crab
consented to let him go up, merely saying that he must throw her
down half the fruit.
In another moment he was swinging himself from branch to branch,
eating all the ripest kakis and filling his pockets with the rest, and
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Fairytales 
