The boy was quite startled, and sprang aside, looking timidly upwards,
when, to my surprise, down came another.
`Why, this is just like the fairy tale of the wishing-cap!' cried
Ernest. `My wish is granted as soon as formed!'
`I suspect the fairy in this instance is more anxious to pelt us and
drive us away, than to bestow dainty gifts upon us,' said I. `I think
there is most likely a cross-grained old ape sitting up among those
shadowy leaves and branches.'
We examined the nuts, thinking they were perhaps old ones, and had
fallen, in consequence, naturally, but they were not even quite ripe.
Anxious to discover what was in the tree, we all surrounded it, gaping
and gazing upwards with curious eyes.
`Hollo! I see him!' shouted Fritz presently. `Oh, a hideous creature!
What can it be? Flat, round, as big as a plate, and with a pair of
horrid claws! Here he comes! He is going to creep down the tree!'
At this, little Franz slipped behind his mother, Ernest took a glance
round to mark a place of retreat, Jack raised the butt-end of his gun,
and every eye was fixed on the trunk of the tree, down which a large
land-crab commenced a leisurely descent. As it approached within reach,
Jack hit at it boldly, when it suddenly dropped the remaining distance,
and opening its great claws, sidled after him with considerable
rapidity, upon which he fairly turned tail and ran.
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