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"Masoy," cried the now enraged ape, "if you have any regard for your own welfare, let me go, for if you don't, I still have one leg left to kill you with." So saying, he kicked him with the remaining foot, getting so tangled up that he and the tar man fell to the ground, rolling over and over. Then Masoy came, and, when he saw the ape, he said: "So you are the robber who has stolen my fruit!
Now you will pay for it with your life." But the ape cried, "Oh, spare my life, and I will be your slave forever!" "Do you promise not to steal my fruit again?" "I do, and I will serve you faithfully all my life." Masoy agreed to spare him. From that time on the ape worked very hard for his master. He sold the fruit and bought the rice and was honest and industrious.
As soon as he was gone, the robber, who was none other than a huge ape, climbed the fence and got in. "Oh!" he said to himself, "I made a mistake! There is Masoy watching. He did not go away as I thought. He is here with a big bamboo hat, but he could not catch me if he tried. I am going to greet him, for fear he may consider me impolite." "Good morning, Masoy," he said. "Why do you not answer me?
Ask him to come to see me, and I will receive him in a manner befitting his rank." The ape returned home and said to Masoy, who knew nothing at all of the negotiations with the chief: "I have good news for you. The chief wants to see you, for he intends to give you his daughter in marriage." "What are you chattering about?" answered Masoy. "Have you lost your senses?
Masoy did so, and found himself, for the first time in his life, so well dressed that he no longer hesitated about going to the chief's house. When they arrived there they found that the chief was expecting them and had made a big feast and reception in honor of his future son-in-law. The chief began to talk about the wedding and said: "Shall we have the wedding in your palace, Masoy?"
Don't you know that I am too poor to marry the chief's daughter? I have not even decent clothes to wear and no means of getting any." "Do not worry about the clothes. I will get them for you somewhere," replied the ape. "And how shall I talk? You know that I am ignorant of city ways." "Oh, Masoy, don't trouble about that! Just answer 'Yes' to the questions they ask you and you will be all right."
Masoy and the Ape. Masoy was a poor man who lived on a farm some miles from the town. His clothing was very poor, and his little garden furnished him scarcely enough to live on. Every week day he went to town to sell his fruits and vegetables and to buy rice. Upon his return he noticed each day that some one had entered the garden in his absence and stolen some of the fruit.
"Yes," answered Masoy. "You have a large palace, I suppose, have n't you, sir?" "Yes," was the reply. "Don't you think it would be well for us to go there this afternoon?" "Yes," was again the reply. Meanwhile the ape had disappeared.
Finally Masoy consented to go, and went down to the river to wash off the dirt and grime. A rich merchant was bathing some distance up the river, and the ape slipped along the bank, stole the merchant's clothes, hat, and shoes, and running back swiftly to his master, bade him put them on.
He tried to protect the garden by making the fence very strong and locking the gate; but, in spite of all he could do, he continued to miss his fruit. At length Masoy conceived the happy idea of taking some pitch and moulding it into the shape of a man. He put a bamboo hat on it and stood it up in one comer of the garden. Then he went away.
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