“Who’s he? Almost everyone here is red.”

The magpie ignored the interruption. “How’d you get here? And what did you come for?”

Embarrassed, the donkey tried to explain. “I wanted—well, I don’t live far away. With Him—”

“With Him, eh?” Interested now, the magpie came nearer. “Well, He’s good! And He doesn’t do us any harm. Now if I could only trust you . . .”

“You can trust me,” Manni said.

“Some other time,” the magpie cackled. “You’re too big, too heavy. Safe is safe!” And she flew swiftly away.

“Now why did she do that?” the donkey said to himself. “That blue-winged simpleton thinks I’m a robber. The silly little thing!”

Manni trotted farther. He didn’t know that to move without sound is the law of the wild. He went very noisily, chewing occasionally on the leaves of bushes that reached out to him. “It’s wonderful in the forest—wonderful!” he thought. “I’d come here often if my duties—if He would let me.”

The bushes rustled. Tambo appeared, huge and powerful, his tall branching crown lowered with hostile purpose. Without realizing it, Manni had come to the stag’s resting place and awakened him out of his sleep.

Amazed, the donkey stuttered, “I—I—won’t hurt you!”

“That’s what robbers always say,” Tambo muttered with annoyance. “And there’s no one who’d dare pick on me except you.”

“But I’m not trying to pick a fight with you! Let’s be friends instead.” The donkey spoke sincerely. But Tambo’s clear, deep eyes examined him and Manni found it hard to bear up under the regal stare. “Believe me—please believe me—I’d like to be your friend,” he begged. “I like you very much.”

“Well, I don’t like you at all,” retorted Tambo, his forelegs moving restlessly. Suddenly he lifted one slender leg and slashed at Manni with the sharp hoof.

The donkey hastily backed away, trembling. “Why do you hate me so?”

Tambo saw Manni’s shivering, and said quietly, “It was a long while ago, so long that none of my forebears could remember it, but it’s been handed down to us that once on a time bloodthirsty monsters lived here. We had to wage a constant life-and-death struggle with them.”

“What did they look like?” asked Manni.

“I don’t know,” Tambo said. “They were all killed by Him ages ago. Maybe they looked like you.”

The donkey forced a laugh. “If they looked like me, then they certainly weren’t dangerous!”

Tambo answered, “That’s what you’d say, of course.” His dark eyes looked carefully at Manni again. “One must think of every possibility. But I see what you mean.”

Relieved that danger seemed to have passed, Manni tore a few leaves from a tree. He chewed them eagerly, partly because he was hungry, partly because he wanted to convince the stag of his harmlessness.

In a surprised and changed tone Tambo asked, “Do you like to eat that sort of thing, too?”

“I’ve never tasted this before,” Manni replied. “It’s no delicacy, at least not for me.