Animals -- Fiction; Children's stories, English; Short stories
The Sailor took the jack-knife home. He was wearing the blue canvas
breeches when he walked out on the shingle. The suspenders were left
behind, you see, to tie the grating with; and that is the end of _that_
tale.
WHEN the cabin port-holes are dark and green
Because of the seas outside;
When the ship goes _wop_ (with a wiggle between)
And the steward falls into the soup-tureen,
And the trunks begin to slide;
When Nursey lies on the floor in a heap,
And Mummy tells you to let her sleep,
And you aren’t waked or washed or dressed,
Why, then you will know (if you haven’t guessed)
You’re ‘Fifty North and Forty West!’
HOW THE CAMEL GOT HIS HUMP
NOW this is the next tale, and it tells how the Camel got his big hump.
In the beginning of years, when the world was so new and all, and the
Animals were just beginning to work for Man, there was a Camel, and he
lived in the middle of a Howling Desert because he did not want to work;
and besides, he was a Howler himself. So he ate sticks and thorns and
tamarisks and milkweed and prickles, most ‘scruciating idle; and when
anybody spoke to him he said ‘Humph!’ Just ‘Humph!’ and no more.
Presently the Horse came to him on Monday morning, with a saddle on his
back and a bit in his mouth, and said, ‘Camel, O Camel, come out and
trot like the rest of us.’
‘Humph!’ said the Camel; and the Horse went away and told the Man.
Presently the Dog came to him, with a stick in his mouth, and said,
‘Camel, O Camel, come and fetch and carry like the rest of us.’
‘Humph!’ said the Camel; and the Dog went away and told the Man.
Presently the Ox came to him, with the yoke on his neck and said,
‘Camel, O Camel, come and plough like the rest of us.’
‘Humph!’ said the Camel; and the Ox went away and told the Man.
At the end of the day the Man called the Horse and the Dog and the Ox
together, and said, ‘Three, O Three, I’m very sorry for you (with the
world so new-and-all); but that Humph-thing in the Desert can’t work,
or he would have been here by now, so I am going to leave him alone, and
you must work double-time to make up for it.’
That made the Three very angry (with the world so new-and-all), and they
held a palaver, and an _indaba_, and a _punchayet_, and a pow-wow on
the edge of the Desert; and the Camel came chewing on milkweed _most_
‘scruciating idle, and laughed at them. Then he said ‘Humph!’ and went
away again.
Presently there came along the Djinn in charge of All Deserts, rolling
in a cloud of dust (Djinns always travel that way because it is Magic),
and he stopped to palaver and pow-pow with the Three.
‘Djinn of All Deserts,’ said the Horse, ‘is it right for any one to be
idle, with the world so new-and-all?’
‘Certainly not,’ said the Djinn.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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