In the Great Jungle, in the center of the known world, lived the biggest lion of all the lions in all the jungles in all the world and his name was Lavi. Because he was the King of the Jungle, it was Lavi's job to walk through the whole jungle each day and make sure that everything was OK.
Since it was a very large jungle, it took all day to walk through it, and, when he got home, he was tired and footsore and generally poor company.
Lavi would sit in the hollow tree, where he lived, and roar and stomp and bite branches in half and be very loud and none of the other animals could get any sleep.

One night, while Lavi was roaring and stomping and biting branches in half, he heard a voice.
"Why are you always in such a bad mood? Don't you know that all your roaring and stomping is keeping us awake? It's very rude of you."
"Who said that?" asked Lavi, looking all around to see where the voice had come from.
"I did," said the voice.
It came from somewhere over Lavi's head, just outside the hole that he used as a door. Lavi stuck his head outside and looked up. Sitting on a branch of the hollow tree was a little monkey.
"Who are you?" Lavi demanded.
"My name is Chikakono," said the monkey. "I live in that tree next door. The one with the big leaves."
Lavi looked at the tree the monkey pointed to. "What do you want?" he asked, very impolitely.
"Well," said Chikakono, "I live there with my six brothers and four sisters, my mother and father, seven aunts, five uncles and eighteen cousins and we never get any sleep, because of you and your bad temper. So, I thought I would come over and ask if you could you be a little quieter, please."
"Quieter?!" roared Lavi. "Why you impudent little monkey, I ought to eat you up! I'm the King of the Jungle! You don't ask the King to be quiet!"
"I do," answered Chikakono. "I don't think it's very kingly to be rude and keep others up all night, just because you are in a bad mood. Why are you always so angry?"
"Because I'm wet!" Lavi roared. "I hate to be wet. It's disgusting! It rains all day in this stupid jungle, and I don't like it at all!"
"Why do you go outside," Chikakono asked, "if you don't like the rain?"
"Because I am the King of the Jungle and I have to go out and look everything over every day."
"Oh, that doesn't sound like a very hard job," said the monkey.
"It's a very important job, " said Lavi. "But, I hate being King. I suppose it wouldn't be so bad if I didn't get so wet all the time. Once in a while wouldn't be too awful, but this rain never stops." Lavi was not quite so angry now. It was nice to have someone to talk to, even if it was only a little monkey.
"Why don't you wear something to keep off the rain?" Chikakono suggested.
"Like what?" asked Lavi.
"Leaves would be good."
"Leaves are slippery and they'd fall off."
"Hmm," hummed Chikakono. "Maybe, you could carry something."
"But, I have to walk on all four of my feet. What could I use to hold on with?" asked Lavi.
"I have an idea!" exclaimed Chikakono, and jumped up and disappeared through the trees.
"Where are you going?" Lavi called, but got no answer, so he went back inside his tree, shaking his head. "Silly monkey," he said to himself.

Lavi felt better after talking to Chikakono and he went straight to sleep without any more roaring, or stomping, or biting branches in half. When he woke up, Lavi stuck his head out the door. It was raining.
"Good morning, Lavi," said Chikakono, who was waiting for him on a branch of the tree.
"Good morning, Chikakono. You look very dry, even though it's raining."
"Oh, I'm nice and dry," said the monkey.
"And how did you do that?" asked Lavi.
"I have a portable tree," Chikakono explained. And she showed it to him. It was a circle of woven twigs covered with great, big leaves, and out of the middle stuck a long stick which Chikakono held up by her tail. It was an umbrella!
"My!" said Lavi. "I think that is the finest portable tree that I have ever seen." And this was true, even if it was the only portable tree that he had ever seen.
"Thank you. It is very nice," Chikakono said. "My six brothers and four sisters, my mother and father, seven aunts, five uncles, eighteen cousins, and I made it last night. But, I don't mind the rain, myself, so I thought I might give it to you, Lavi. Would you like it?"
"Oh, very much," said Lavi, "but how will I carry it?"
"If you promise not to eat me up," said Chikakono, "I'll tie it to your tail."
"I wouldn't eat you, Chikakono. You're very kind to offer me your portable tree and it would be very impolite to eat you up," Lavi explained.
"Thank you," said Chikakono. "I'll come right down." And she climbed down from the tree and up onto Lavi's back. Very quickly, Chikakono tied the umbrella to his tail.
Carefully, with the monkey riding on his back, Lavi stepped out into the rain, holding up his new umbrella with his tail. The umbrella worked very well, keeping all of Lavi's body dry, except for a little patch by his tail. He was very excited and happy. He thanked Chikakono and all of her relatives--six brothers and four sisters, her mother and father, seven aunts, five uncles and eighteen cousins--and invited her to ride on his back, but the monkey was so tired from staying up all night to help make the umbrella that she said "no, thank you" very politely and went home to bed.

All day long Lavi walked through the jungle and was very happy because he stayed very dry. Some of the other animals thought that his umbrella was silly-looking--especially the tiger--but Lavi didn't care and, when they teased him, he just laughed and waved his umbrella so that the water flew off of it and got them wet. Everything was very pleasant, until Lavi reached the river, where the crocodile lived.
Every time that Lavi wanted to cross the river, Crocodile would swim up and tell him that he could only cross the water if he won at wrestling. Lavi didn't like the crocodile very much, but he had to wrestle him, or he would never get across.
But, on this day, the crocodile swam by and said: "My goodness, what's that thing tied to your tail?"
"That's my portable tree," Lavi explained. "It keeps me dry in the rain."
"That's dumb," said Crocodile, who was a very ornery animal. "Who would want to stay dry when it's so wonderful to be wet?"
"I don't like to get wet," said Lavi.
"You don't?" asked the incredulous crocodile. This was something new to the crocodile and, being a very wicked animal, he loved to make others unhappy.
"Well, I'll just see about that," he said and he jumped up, out of the river, and ate the umbrella!
The umbrella was so large, that it got stuck in the crocodile's mouth and Lavi was able to swim quickly across the river without having to wrestle. But, now he was angry because the crocodile had eaten his umbrella and caused him to get wet.
Lavi was so mad, that he went around the jungle for the rest of the day roaring and stomping and biting branches in half.

When he got home, Chikakono was sitting in the tree, waiting for him.
"Why are you so upset?" she asked.
"The crocodile ate my portable tree!" roared Lavi.
"Oh, that's too bad," said Chikakono.
"Yes. Now, how will I stay dry?" Lavi asked.
"Well," Chikakono said, "I've been thinking about that and I think that you should take a vacation."
"A vacation? What's that?" asked Lavi.
"Well, in this case, it's a trip to a place you've never been to before to be lazy and have some fun and not do any work."
"That does sound like fun," said Lavi. "But who will take care of the jungle while I'm gone?"
"Oh, don't worry about that," the monkey said. "The tiger said he would look after the jungle for you."
"That's very kind of him," Lavi said, "but, where shall I go for this vacation?"
"You should go someplace dry," said Chikakono. "I think that you would enjoy visiting the savannah very much."

Lavi had never heard of a savannah before, so he asked the monkey what it was and where it was and how to get there, and Chikakono told him. "I think I will like that," said Lavi. "I'll start tomorrow morning!" So, early the next morning, Lavi began walking west until he came to the very edge of the jungle.
Where the jungle ended, the plain began. The plain was very flat and tall grass grew everywhere that Lavi could see. Here and there, there were some trees, but they didn't look like the trees in the jungle. Everything looked different and everything seemed so dry. Lavi stood on the grass and stared in wonder.
Since he had walked all day, Lavi was now quite tired, so he found a tree to curl under and went to sleep, although he was afraid it might rain during the night.
It did not rain that night, nor on any night, while Lavi stayed on the savannah. Every day was warm and dry and Lavi had great fun running around, chasing the gazelles and giraffes, teasing the water buffaloes and playing hiding games with the lizards. Sometimes, he just lay in the warm sunshine and napped. He was having a wonderful time. But vacations don't last forever, and, finally, Lavi had to go home.

So, the lion walked back across the plain to the jungle. Beneath a tree on the very edge of the jungle sat the tiger and Chikakono. It was raining, of course.
"Hello, Lavi," said the monkey and the tiger.
"Hello, Chikakono. Hello, Tiger," Lavi greeted them.
"Did you enjoy your vacation?" asked Chikakono.
"Oh, very much!" Lavi exclaimed, and began to tell her about the grass and the water buffaloes.
"It sounds very dull to me," said the tiger.
"Well, I liked it," said Lavi. "It was warm and fun and it didn't rain even once."
"Did you like it more than the jungle?" asked Chikakono.
"Yes, I did," Lavi answered.
"I think that the savannah sounds boring," said the tiger, "and the crocodile is probably more fun to wrestle with than any water buffalo.
"Well, I don't like wrestling with the crocodile and I think that the savannah is much nicer than this wet, old jungle," said Lavi.
"Well, maybe you should just stay on the dreadful, dry savannah, then," the tiger growled.
Lavi growled back.
"Stop that," the monkey chided. "There's no point in arguing about what someone likes."
The lion and the tiger both stopped growling and thought that Chikakono was probably right.
"Maybe," said Chikakono, "Lavi should stay on the plain, if he likes it so much."
"But who would take care of the jungle?" Lavi asked. "The tiger has been doing a fine job so far," Chikakono said.
"Well," said Lavi, thinking aloud, "I don't know if that would be fair."
"Of course, it would," Chikakono answered. "Why should you live somewhere that you don't like and do things that you don't enjoy, when you have a choice?"
"What if I found out that I didn't like it so much after all?" Lavi asked.
"You could move back, then," replied the monkey.
The lion looked at the tiger and the tiger looked at the lion.
"What do you think?" Lavi asked the tiger.
"Fine by me," said the tiger.
So, Lavi moved to the plain and the tiger stayed in the jungle. Soon, all the lions lived on the plain, where it was warm and dry, and all the tigers lived in the jungles, where it was cool and wet, and they still live there today.

The End

This story was written by Kat Richardson
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