Upon this, the beggar man became so scared that he did not know whether he should faint or get up and run away.
Seeing him so overcome, Keejeepaa asked, "Why, master, what's the matter?"
"Oh, gracious!" he gasped; "what a wonder I see!"
"A wonder?" said the gazelle, looking all around; "why, what is this wonder, that makes you act as if you were all broken up?"
"Why, it's so wonderful, I can hardly believe I'm awake!" said his master. "Who in the world ever before knew of a gazelle that could speak?"
"Oho!" laughed Keejeepaa; "is that all? There are many more wonderful things than that. But now, listen, while I tell you why I called you."
"Certainly; I'll listen to every word," said the man. "I can't help listening!"
"Well, you see, it's just this way," said Keejeepaa; "I've allowed you to become my master, and I can not run away from you; so I want you to make an agreement with me, and I will make you a promise, and keep it."
"Now," continued the gazelle, "one doesn't have to be acquainted with you long, in order to discover that you are very poor. This scratching a few grains of millet from the dust heap every day, and managing to subsist upon them, is all very well for you--you're used to it, because it's a matter of necessity with you; but if I keep it up much longer, you won't have any gazelle--Keejeepaa will die of starvation. Therefore, I want to go away every day and feed on my own kind of food; and I promise you I will return every evening."
"Well, I guess I'll have to give my consent," said the man, in no very cheerful tone.
As it was now dawn, Keejeepaa jumped up and ran out of the door, Haamdaanee following him. The gazelle ran very fast, and his master stood watching him until he disappeared. Then tears started in the man's eyes, and, raising his hands, he cried, "Oh, my mother!" Then he cried, "Oh, my father!" Then he cried, "Oh, my gazelle! It has run away!"
Some of his neighbors, who heard him carrying on in this manner, took the opportunity to inform him that he was a fool, an idiot, and a dissipated fellow.
Said one of them: "You hung around that dust heap, goodness knows how long, scratching like a hen, till fortune gave you a dime. You hadn't sense enough to go and buy some decent food; you had to buy a gazelle. Now you've let the creature run away. What are you crying about? You brought all your trouble on yourself."