little for you to eat; and the heat is so great! So I was thinking,
'What in the world will these fish do now?'"

"Yes, indeed, sir! what _are_ we to do?" said they.

"If you will only do as I bid you, I will take you in my beak to a fine
large pond, covered with all the kinds of lotuses, and put you into
it," answered the crane.

"That a crane should take thought for the fishes is a thing unheard of,
sir, since the world began. It's eating us, one after the other, that
you're aiming at."

"Not I! So long as you trust me, I won't eat you. But if you don't
believe me that there is such a pond, send one of you with me to go and
see it."

Then they trusted him, and handed over to him one of their number--a
big fellow, blind of one eye, whom they thought sharp enough in any
emergency, afloat or ashore.

Him the crane took with him, let him go in the pond, showed him the
whole of it, brought him back, and let him go again close to the other
fish. And he told them all the glories of the pond.

And when they heard what he said, they exclaimed, "All right, sir! You
may take us with you."

Then the crane took the old purblind fish first to the bank of the
other pond, and alighted in a Varana-tree growing on the bank there.