ANIMAL TALES

• The Big Leap
• Whining & Dining
• Tiger's Cub
• Safety In Numbers
• Tug of War
• The Fairest of Them All
• Donkey Who Didn't Help
• Wrinkled Winner
• The Fire Specialists
• Uneasy Neighbours
• Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby
• The Boastful Crow
• How You Say It Matters
• Outwitting a Crocodile
• The Diplomatic Reply
• The Scheming Rat
• Half-Educated

Tiger's Cub

A magician was demonstrating his tricks at a country fair, on an open-air stage. He got loud applause when he took out a rabbit from his hat.
Unknown to the magician and the spectators, a tiger was watching the show from behind some bushes, nearby. Later that night, the tiger waylaid the magician as he was going home.
"I saw you pull a rabbit out of your hat," he said. "Pull out a cub for me!"
"The rabbit was in the bag all the time," blurted the magician, trembling from head to toe. "I cannot create animals out of thin air!"
"Produce a tiger cub if you know what's good for you!" snarled the beast.
"All right, all right!" said the magician, thinking fast. "But it'll take some time. A month at least."
"I can wait!"
"There's another thing," said the magician, a plan forming in his mind. "You'll have to stay on a diet of milk and rice during the entire period!"
"Milk and rice!"
"Otherwise the trick will not work."
"All right," said the tiger, finally. " I'll live on milk and rice."
He went away and returned a month later.
"Now let me have the cub," he said, in a barely audible voice, his diet having made him extremely weak.
The magician called the whole village to witness the magic trick.
"This is a special show for our guest here," he announced. "So instead of pulling out a rabbit from my hat I'll pull out a young member of his family."
He muttered some mumbo-jumbo, passed his hands over the hat several times, and then with a loud cry plunged his hand into the hat and pulled out a small cuddly animal.
"A kitten!" guffawed the spectators.
The kitten meowed.
The tiger was not amused. He let out a mighty roar, or at least he had intended to roar but in his weakened state the sound that emerged from his mouth was a loud
"MEEEEE-OOOWWW!"
The villagers rocked with laughter. The tiger felt so ashamed that he leapt out of his seat and ran away, and was never seen again.