at last, one day, he knew the persimmons must be quite ripe and he wanted very much to taste one. he made several attempts to climb the tree, in the vain hope of reaching one of the beautiful persimmons hanging above him; but he failed each time, for a crab's legs are not made for climbing trees but only for running along the ground and over stones, both of which he can do most cleverly. in his dilemma he thought of his old playmate the monkey, who, he knew, could climb trees better than any one else in the world. he determined to ask the monkey to help him, and set out to find him.