The small calabash said, “Choose only your own.”  But he also asked the big calabash, which answered, “Take four of them!” Headstrong agreed.  He took five of them.

Then the nice people on the mats said to him, “When you arrived, you omitted to greet the chief.  You greeted only us, the plain people.  We prepared porridge for you; it was the food of the chief.  You only thanked us here.  You not only chose your own dogs but you wanted to take ours also.  We cannot suffer such insolence to live!”  They grabbed him and killed him.  And here it was that Headstrong came to an end.

Lawanda Randall is a former children’s librarian who has been a storyteller since 1972.  She lives in Washington, D.C.