Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling (e books for reading TXT) đ
- Author: Rudyard Kipling
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Book online «Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling (e books for reading TXT) đ». Author Rudyard Kipling
Just So Stories
by Ruyard Kiping
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
HOW THE WHALE GOT HIS THROAT
HOW THE CAMEL GOT HIS HUMP
HOW THE RHINOCEROS GOT HIS SKIN
HOW THE LEOPARD GOT HIS SPOTS
THE ELEPHANTâS CHILD
THE SING-SONG OF OLD MAN KANGAROO
THE BEGINNING OF THE ARMADILLOSHOW THE FIRST LETTER WAS WRITTEN
HOW THE ALPHABET WAS MADETHE CRAB THAT PLAYED WITH THE SEA
THE CAT THAT WALKED BY HIMSELF
THE BUTTERFLY THAT STAMPEDHOW THE WHALE GOT HIS THROAT
IN the sea, once upon a time, O my Best Beloved, there was a Whale, and he ate fishes. He ate the starfish and the garfish, and the crab and the dab, and the plaice and the dace, and the skate and his mate, and the mackereel and the pickereel, and the really truly twirly-whirly eel. All the fishes he could find in all the sea he ate with his mouthâso! Till at last there was only one small fish left in all the sea, and he was a small âStute Fish, and he swam a little behind the Whaleâs right ear, so as to be out of harmâs way. Then the Whale stood up on his tail and said, âIâm hungry.â And the small âStute Fish said in a small âstute voice, âNoble and generous Cetacean, have you ever tasted Man?â
âNo,â said the Whale. âWhat is it like?â
âNice,â said the small âStute Fish. âNice but nubbly.â
âThen fetch me some,â said the Whale, and he made the sea froth up with his tail.
âOne at a time is enough,â said the âStute Fish. âIf you swim to latitude Fifty North, longitude Forty West (that is magic), you will find, sitting on a raft, in the middle of the sea, with nothing on but a pair of blue canvas breeches, a pair of suspenders (you must not forget the suspenders, Best Beloved), and a jack-knife, one shipwrecked Mariner, who, it is only fair to tell you, is a man of infinite-resource-and-sagacity.â
So the Whale swam and swam to latitude Fifty North, longitude Forty West, as fast as he could swim, and on a raft, in the middle of the sea, with nothing to wear except a pair of blue canvas breeches, a pair of suspenders (you must particularly remember the suspenders, Best Beloved), and a jack-knife, he found one single, solitary shipwrecked Mariner, trailing his toes in the water. (He had his mummyâs leave to paddle, or else he would never have done it, because he was a man of infinite-resource-and-sagacity.)
Then the Whale opened his mouth back and back and back till it nearly touched his tail, and he swallowed the shipwrecked Mariner, and the raft he was sitting on, and his blue canvas breeches, and the suspenders (which you must not forget), and the jack-knifeâHe swallowed them all down into his warm, dark, inside cup-boards, and then he smacked his lipsâso, and turned round three times on his tail.
But as soon as the Mariner, who was a man of infinite-resource- and-sagacity, found himself truly inside the Whaleâs warm, dark, inside cup-boards, he stumped and he jumped and he thumped and he bumped, and he pranced and he danced, and he banged and he clanged, and he hit and he bit, and he leaped and he creeped, and he prowled and he howled, and he hopped and he dropped, and he cried and he sighed, and he crawled and he bawled, and he stepped and he lepped, and he danced hornpipes where he shouldnât, and the Whale felt most unhappy indeed. (_Have_ you forgotten the suspenders?)
So he said to the âStute Fish, âThis man is very nubbly, and besides he is making me hiccough. What shall I do?â
âTell him to come out,â said the âStute Fish.
So the Whale called down his own throat to the shipwrecked Mariner, âCome out and behave yourself. Iâve got the hiccoughs.â
âNay, nay!â said the Mariner. âNot so, but far otherwise. Take me to my natal-shore and the white-cliffs-of-Albion, and Iâll think about it.â And he began to dance more than ever.
âYou had better take him home,â said the âStute Fish to the Whale. âI ought to have warned you that he is a man of infinite-resource-and-sagacity.â
So the Whale swam and swam and swam, with both flippers and his tail, as hard as he could for the hiccoughs; and at last he saw the Marinerâs natal-shore and the white-cliffs-of-Albion, and he rushed half-way up the beach, and opened his mouth wide and wide and wide, and said, âChange here for Winchester, Ashuelot, Nashua, Keene, and stations on the Fitchburg Road;â and just as he said âFitchâ the Mariner walked out of his mouth. But while the Whale had been swimming, the Mariner, who was indeed a person of infinite-resource-and-sagacity, had taken his jack-knife and cut up the raft into a little square grating all running criss-cross, and he had tied it firm with his suspenders (_now_, you know why you were not to forget the suspenders!), and he dragged that grating good and tight into the Whaleâs throat, and there it stuck! Then he recited the following Sloka, which, as you have not heard it, I will now proceed to relateâ
By means of a grating I have stopped your ating.
For the Mariner he was also an Hi-ber-ni-an. And he stepped out on the shingle, and went home to his mother, who had given him leave to trail his toes in the water; and he married and lived happily ever afterward. So did the Whale. But from that day on, the grating in his throat, which he could neither cough up nor swallow down, prevented him eating anything except very, very small fish; and that is the reason why whales nowadays never eat men or boys or little girls.
The small âStute Fish went and hid himself in the mud under the Door-sills of the Equator. He was afraid that the Whale might be angry with him.
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 arenât waked or washed or dressed,
Why, then you will know (if you havenât guessed)
Youâre âFifty North and Forty West!â
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 âscruciating idle; and when anybody spoke to him he said âHumph!â Just âHumph!â 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, âCamel, O Camel, come out and trot like the rest of us.â
âHumph!â 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, âCamel, O Camel, come and fetch and carry like the rest of us.â
âHumph!â 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, âCamel, O Camel, come and plough like the rest of us.â
âHumph!â 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, âThree, O Three, Iâm very sorry for you (with the world so new-and-all); but that Humph-thing in the Desert canât 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.â
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 âscruciating idle, and laughed at them. Then he said âHumph!â 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.
âDjinn of All Deserts,â said the Horse, âis it right for any one to be idle, with the world so new-and-all?â
âCertainly not,â said the Djinn.
âWell,â said the Horse, âthereâs a thing in the middle of your Howling Desert (and heâs a Howler himself) with a long neck and long legs, and he hasnât done a stroke of work since Monday morning. He wonât trot.â
âWhew!â said the Djinn, whistling, âthatâs my Camel, for all the gold in Arabia! What does he say about it?â
âHe says âHumph!ââ said the Dog; âand he wonât fetch and carry.â
âDoes he say anything else?â
âOnly âHumph!â; and he wonât plough,â said the Ox.
âVery good,â said the Djinn. âIâll humph him if you will kindly wait a minute.â
The Djinn rolled himself up in his dust-cloak, and took a bearing across the desert, and found the Camel most âscruciatingly idle, looking at his own reflection in a pool of water.
âMy long and bubbling friend,â said the Djinn, âwhatâs this I hear of your doing no work, with the world so new-and-all?â
âHumph!â said the Camel.
The Djinn sat down, with his chin in his hand, and began to think a Great Magic, while the Camel looked at his own reflection in the pool of water.
âYouâve given the Three extra work ever since Monday morning, all on account of your âscruciating idleness,â said the Djinn; and he went on thinking Magics, with his chin in his hand.
âHumph!â said the Camel.
âI shouldnât say that again if I were you,â said the Djinn; you might say it once too often. Bubbles, I want you to work.â
And the Camel said âHumph!â again; but no sooner had he said it than he saw his back, that he was so proud of, puffing up and puffing up into a great big lolloping humph.
âDo you see that?â said the Djinn. âThatâs your very own humph that youâve brought upon your very own self by not working. To-day is Thursday, and youâve done no work since Monday, when the work began. Now you are going to work.â
âHow can I,â said the Camel, âwith this humph on my back?â
âThatâs made a-purpose,â said the Djinn, âall because you missed those three days. You will be able to work now for three days without eating, because you can live on your humph; and donât you ever say
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