Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling (e books for reading TXT) đ
- Author: Rudyard Kipling
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âThat was a very narrow escape,â said Stickly-Prickly. âI donât rib Painted Jaguar. What did you tell him that you were?â
âI told him truthfully that I was a truthful Tortoise, but he wouldnât believe it, and he made me jump into the river to see if I was, and I was, and he is surprised. Now heâs gone to tell his Mummy. Listen to him!â
They could hear Painted Jaguar roaring up and down among the trees and the bushes by the side of the turbid Amazon, till his Mummy came.
âSon, son!â said his mother ever so many times, graciously waving her tail, âwhat have you been doing that you shouldnât have done?â
âI tried to scoop something that said it wanted to be scooped out of its shell with my paw, and my paw is full of per-ickles,â said Painted Jaguar.
âSon, son!â said his mother ever so many times, graciously waving her tail, âby the prickles in your paddy-paw I see that that must have been a Hedgehog. You should have dropped him into the water.
âI did that to the other thing; and he said he was a Tortoise, and I didnât believe him, and it was quite true, and he has dived under the turbid Amazon, and he wonât come up again, and I havenât anything at all to eat, and I think we had better find lodgings somewhere else. They are too clever on the turbid Amazon for poor me!â
âSon, son!â said his mother ever so many times, graciously waving her tail, ânow attend to me and remember what I say. A Hedgehog curls himself up into a ball and his prickles stick out every which way at once. By this you may know the Hedgehog.â
âI donât like this old lady one little bit,â said Stickly-Prickly, under the shadow of a large leaf. âI wonder what else she knows?â
âA Tortoise canât curl himself up,â Mother Jaguar went on, ever so many times, graciously waving her tail. âHe only draws his head and legs into his shell. By this you may know the tortoise.â
âI donât like this old lady at allâat all,â said Slow-and-Solid Tortoise. âEven Painted Jaguar canât forget those directions. Itâs a great pity that you canât swim, Stickly-Prickly.â
âDonât talk to me,â said Stickly-Prickly. âJust think how much better it would be if you could curl up. This is a mess! Listen to Painted Jaguar.â
Painted Jaguar was sitting on the banks of the turbid Amazon sucking prickles out of his Paws and saying to himselfâ
âCanât curl, but can swimâ Slow-Solid, thatâs him! Curls up, but canât swimâ Stickly-Prickly, thatâs him!â
âHeâll never forget that this month of Sundays,â said Stickly-Prickly. âHold up my chin, Slow-and-Solid. Iâm going to try to learn to swim. It may be useful.â
âExcellent!â said Slow-and-Solid; and he held up Stickly-Pricklyâs chin, while Stickly-Prickly kicked in the waters of the turbid Amazon.
âYouâll make a fine swimmer yet,â said Slow-and-Solid. âNow, if you can unlace my back-plates a little, Iâll see what I can do towards curling up. It may be useful.â
Stickly-Prickly helped to unlace Tortoiseâs back-plates, so that by twisting and straining Slow-and-Solid actually managed to curl up a tiddy wee bit.
âExcellent!â said Stickly-Prickly; âbut I shouldnât do any more just now. Itâs making you black in the face. Kindly lead me into the water once again and Iâll practice that side-stroke which you say is so easy.â And so Stickly-Prickly practiced, and Slow-Solid swam alongside.
âExcellent!â said Slow-and-Solid. âA little more practice will make you a regular whale. Now, if I may trouble you to unlace my back and front plates two holes more, Iâll try that fascinating bend that you say is so easy. Wonât Painted Jaguar be surprised!â
âExcellent!â said Stickly-Prickly, all wet from the turbid Amazon. âI declare, I shouldnât know you from one of my own family. Two holes, I think, you said? A little more expression, please, and donât grunt quite so much, or Painted Jaguar may hear us. When youâve finished, I want to try that long dive which you say is so easy. Wonât Painted Jaguar be surprised!â
And so Stickly-Prickly dived, and Slow-and-Solid dived alongside.
âExcellent!â said Slow-and-Solid. âA leetle more attention to holding your breath and you will be able to keep house at the bottom of the turbid Amazon. Now Iâll try that exercise of putting my hind legs round my ears which you say is so peculiarly comfortable. Wonât Painted Jaguar be surprised!â
âExcellent!â said Stickly-Prickly. âBut itâs straining your back-plates a little. They are all overlapping now, instead of lying side by side.â
âOh, thatâs the result of exercise,â said Slow-and-Solid. âIâve noticed that your prickles seem to be melting into one another, and that youâre growing to look rather more like a pinecone, and less like a chestnut-burr, than you used to.â
âAm I?â said Stickly-Prickly. âThat comes from my soaking in the water. Oh, wonât Painted Jaguar be surprised!â
They went on with their exercises, each helping the other, till morning came; and when the sun was high they rested and dried themselves. Then they saw that they were both of them quite different from what they had been.
âStickly-Prickly,â said Tortoise after breakfast, âI am not what I was yesterday; but I think that I may yet amuse Painted Jaguar.
âThat was the very thing I was thinking just now,â said Stickly-Prickly. âI think scales are a tremendous improvement on pricklesâto say nothing of being able to swim. Oh, wonât Painted Jaguar be surprised! Letâs go and find him.â
By and by they found Painted Jaguar, still nursing his paddy-paw that had been hurt the night before. He was so astonished that he fell three times backward over his own painted tail without stopping.
âGood morning!â said Stickly-Prickly. âAnd how is your dear gracious Mummy this morning?â
âShe is quite well, thank you,â said Painted Jaguar; âbut you must forgive me if I do not at this precise moment recall your name.â
âThatâs unkind of you,â said Stickly-Prickly, âseeing that this time yesterday you tried to scoop me out of my shell with your paw.â
âBut you hadnât any shell. It was all prickles,â said Painted Jaguar. âI know it was. Just look at my paw!â
âYou told me to drop into the turbid Amazon and be drowned,â said Slow-Solid. âWhy are you so rude and forgetful to-day?â
âDonât you remember what your mother told you?â said Stickly-Prickly,â
âCanât curl, but can swimâ Stickly-Prickly, thatâs him! Curls up, but canât swimâ Slow-Solid, thatâs him!â
Then they both curled themselves up and rolled round and round Painted Jaguar till his eyes turned truly cart-wheels in his head.
Then he went to fetch his mother.
âMother,â he said, âthere are two new animals in the woods to-day, and the one that you said couldnât swim, swims, and the one that you said couldnât curl up, curls; and theyâve gone shares in their prickles, I think, because both of them are scaly all over, instead of one being smooth and the other very prickly; and, besides that, they are rolling round and round in circles, and I donât feel comfy.â
âSon, son!â said Mother Jaguar ever so many times, graciously waving her tail, âa Hedgehog is a Hedgehog, and canât be anything but a Hedgehog; and a Tortoise is a Tortoise, and can never be anything else.â
âBut it isnât a Hedgehog, and it isnât a Tortoise. Itâs a little bit of both, and I donât know its proper name.â
âNonsense!â said Mother Jaguar. âEverything has its proper name. I should call it âArmadilloâ till I found out the real one. And I should leave it alone.â
So Painted Jaguar did as he was told, especially about leaving them alone; but the curious thing is that from that day to this, O Best Beloved, no one on the banks of the turbid Amazon has ever called Stickly-Prickly and Slow-Solid anything except Armadillo. There are Hedgehogs and Tortoises in other places, of course (there are some in my garden); but the real old and clever kind, with their scales lying lippety-lappety one over the other, like pinecone scales, that lived on the banks of the turbid Amazon in the High and Far-Off Days, are always called Armadillos, because they were so clever.
So that; all right, Best Beloved. Do you see?
IâVE never sailed the Amazon,
Iâve never reached Brazil;
But the Don and Magdelana,
They can go there when they will!
Yes, weekly from Southampton,
Great steamers, white and gold,
Go rolling down to Rio
(Roll downâroll down to Rio!)
And Iâd like to roll to Rio
Some day before Iâm old!
Iâve never seen a Jaguar,
Nor yet an Armadill
O dilloing in his armour,
And I sâpose I never will,
Unless I go to Rio
These wonders to beholdâ
Roll downâroll down to Rioâ
Roll really down to Rio!
Oh, Iâd love to roll to Rio
Some day before Iâm old!
HOW THE FIRST LETTER WAS WRITTEN
ONCE upon a most early time was a Neolithic man. He was not a Jute or an Angle, or even a Dravidian, which he might well have been, Best Beloved, but never mind why. He was a Primitive, and he lived cavily in a Cave, and he wore very few clothes, and he couldnât read and he couldnât write and he didnât want to, and except when he was hungry he was quite happy. His name was Tegumai Bopsulai, and that means, âMan-who-does-not-put-his-foot-forward-in-a-hurryâ; but we, O Best Beloved, will call him Tegumai, for short. And his wifeâs name was Teshumai Tewindrow, and that means, âLady-who-asks-a-very-many-questionsâ; but we, O Best Beloved, will call her Teshumai, for short. And his little girl-daughterâs name was Taffimai Metallumai, and that means, âSmall-person-without-any-manners-who-ought-to-be-spankedâ; but Iâm going to call her Taffy. And she was Tegumai Bopsulaiâs Best Beloved and her own Mummyâs Best Beloved, and she was not spanked half as much as was good for her; and they were all three very happy. As soon as Taffy could run about she went everywhere with her Daddy Tegumai, and sometimes they would not come home to the Cave till they were hungry, and then Teshumai Tewindrow would say, âWhere in the world have you two been to, to get so shocking dirty? Really, my Tegumai, youâre no better than my Taffy.â
Now attend and listen!
One day Tegumai Bopsulai went down through the beaver-swamp to the Wagai river to spear carp-fish for dinner, and Taffy went too. Tegumaiâs spear was made of wood with sharkâs teeth at the end, and before he had caught any fish at all he accidentally broke it clean across by jabbing it down too hard on the bottom of the river. They were miles and miles from home (of course they had their lunch with them in a little bag), and Tegumai had forgotten to bring any extra spears.
âHereâs a pretty kettle of fish!â said Tegumai. âIt will take me half the day to mend this.â
âThereâs your big black spear at home,â said Taffy. âLet me run back to the Cave and ask Mummy to give it me.â
âItâs too far for your little fat legs,â said Tegumai. âBesides, you might fall into the beaver-swamp and be drowned. We must make the best of a bad job.â He sat down and took out a little leather mendy-bag, full of reindeer-sinews and strips of leather, and lumps of beeâs-wax and resin, and began to mend the spear.
Taffy sat down too, with her toes in the water and her chin in her hand, and thought very hard. Then she saidââI say, Daddy, itâs an awful nuisance that you and I donât know how to write, isnât it? If we did we could send a message for the
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