The Lambikin

Once there was a little lambikin, round and merry, who skipped off through the forest to visit his granny. Trit-trot, trit-trot went his little feet, and he was as happy as could be.

Before long, out from behind a tree stepped a hungry jackal. “Lambikin, lambikin,” said the jackal, licking his lips, “I am going to eat you up!”

But the lambikin only laughed. “Eat me? Why, there is barely anything to me. Wait until I have been to Granny’s and grown nice and fat. You can eat me on my way home.” The jackal thought about it, and his belly thought about it, and he let the lambikin trit-trot away.

A little further on, a great striped tiger blocked the path. “Lambikin, lambikin, I am going to eat you up!” And again the lambikin laughed and said, “Oh, not now, I am all skin and bones. Wait till I am back from Granny’s, plump as a plum, and you may eat me then.” So the tiger, dreaming of a fatter meal, let him pass.

And so it went, with a wolf and an eagle besides, each one promised a plumper lambikin on the way home. At last he reached Granny’s house, and oh, how he ate. Sweet grass and warm milk, day after day, until he was as round as a barrel.

But now he was frightened. “Granny,” he wailed, “all those hungry creatures are waiting to eat me on the way home!” Granny, who was clever, thought for a moment. Then she made a little drum, a round one called Drumikin, and she popped the fat little lambikin snug inside it. “Now roll home,” she said, “and sing.”

So the drum went rolling through the forest, and from inside it came a small muffled song: “Lost in the forest, and so are you. On little Drumikin! Who are you?” The jackal heard it and scratched his head. The tiger heard it and frowned. “That is only a silly rolling drum,” they each said. “I am waiting for a fat little lambikin.” And one by one, they let the drum roll right on past. All the way home it rolled, where Granny tipped out one very pleased lambikin, safe and sound and never eaten at all.