Drooping low in feeble meanness,
Lightly brushed aside.
My master must take this point of view and reinforce his resolution, not fear a mere sound. As the saying goes:
I thought at first that it was full
Of fat; I crept within
And there I did not find a thing
Except some wood and skin."
"How was that?" asked Rusty. And Victor told the story of
THE JACKAL AND THE WAR-DRUM
In a certain region was a jackal whose throat was pinched by hunger. While wandering in search of food, he came upon a king's battle ground in the midst of a forest. And as he lingered a moment there he heard a great sound.
This sound troubled his heart exceedingly, so that he fell into deep dejection and said: "Ah me! Disaster is upon me. I am as good as dead already. Who made that sound? What kind of a creature?"
But on peering about, he spied a war-drum that loomed like a mountain-peak, and he thought: "Was that sound its natural voice, or was it induced from without?" Now when the drum was struck by the tips of grasses swaying in the wind, it made the sound, but was dumb at other times.
So he recognized its helplessness, and crept quite near. Indeed, his curiosity led him to strike it him-
