The Baboons Who Went This Way and That by Alexander McCall Smith

was very pleased. Goat had said that he would have some very fine meat for them to eat, and Jackal liked to eat fine meat.
    Goat was a good cook.
     

     
    ‘This meat is very tasty,’ said Jackal, as he sat at Goat’s table, the plate of meat before him. ‘Is it the meat of a guinea fowl?’
    ‘No,’ said Goat. ‘It is the meat of a rooster.’
    ‘Then you must get me the chicks of this rooster so that I can eat them too,’ said Jackal.
    Goat laughed at this, and explained to Jackal that a rooster was a man and could not have chicks. Only women can have babies, he said.
    Jackal was very cross at being corrected and told Goat that unless she fetched the chicks of this rooster he would have to eat him instead. This made Goat very frightened, as jackal had powerful jaws and could easily eat him up if he wanted to. He tried again to explain to Jackal that a rooster could not have chicks, but his friend just became angrier and angrier and started to snarl at him, as if he was preparing to eat him.
     

     
    Then Hare came to Goat’s house and saw the danger that his friend was facing. Without delay he turned to Jackal and said that he could not stay to talk to him as he had to go to go and cook for his father, who had a small baby.
    Jackal turned to him angrily and said it was strange that he should say this as his father was a man and men did not have babies. ‘You must be strange in the head to say such a thing,’ said Jackal.
    Hare looked at Goat and gave him a wink. Jackal did not see this wink.
    ‘But you said exactly the same thing,’ he pointed out. ‘You said that a rooster could have chicks. You must be strange in the head too.’
     

     
    When Jackal heard this he was so embarrassed that he ran away. Goat turned to Hare and thanked him for saving his life. Then they both sat down and ate the last of the meat, which was very good.

 
     
     
     
     

Also by Alexander McCall Smith
    The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency Series 
       
    The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency
    Tears of the Giraffe
    Morality for Beautiful Girls
    The Kalahari Typing School for Men
    The Full Cupboard of Life
    In the Company of Cheerful Ladies
       
    The Sunday Philosophy Club Series
       
    The Sunday Philosophy Club  
       
    Short Stories 
       
    The Girl Who Married a Lion
    The Girl Who Married a Lion (Illustrated)
    Heavenly Date and Other Flirtations

    a cognizant original v5 release october 04 2010

Copyright
    This edition first published in Great Britain in 2006 by
Canongate Books Ltd, 14 High Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1TE
    This digital edition first published in 2009 by Canongate Books
    The following stories first published in
The Baboons Who Went This Way And That in 2006
‘Chicken, Hawk and the Missing Needle’
‘Morategi and His Two Wives’
‘The MiracleTree’
‘The Goat and the Jackal’
Copyright © Alexander McCall Smith, 2006
    The following stories first published in The Girl Who Married a Lion in 2004
‘Bad Uncles’
‘The Grandmother Who Was Kind To A Smelly Girl’
‘The Thathano Moratho Tree’
Copyright © Alexander McCall Smith, 2004
    Other stories first published in Children of Wax in 1989 by Canongate Books Ltd
    Copyright © Alexander McCall Smith, 1989
    Illustrations copyright © Naomi Holwill, 2006
    The moral rights of the author have been asserted
    British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available on
request from the British Library
    ISBN 978 1 84767 695 5
    www.meetatthegate.com