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The Talking Beasts

by Kate Douglas Wiggin and Nora Archibald Smith

122 of 240 · Contents · Download EPUB

The Camel and the Pig

A Camel said: “Nothing like being tall! Look how tall I am!”

A Pig, who heard these words, said: “Nothing like being short! Look how short I am!”

The Camel said: “Well, if I fail to prove the truth of what I said, I shall give up my hump.”

The Pig said: “If I fail to prove the truth of what I have said, I shall give up my snout.”

“Agreed!” said the Camel.

“Just so!” said the Pig.

They came to a garden, enclosed by a low wall without any opening. The Camel stood on this side the wall, and reaching the plants within by means of his long neck made a breakfast on them. Then he turned jeeringly to the Pig, who had been standing at the bottom of the wall without even a look at the good things in the garden, and said: “Now, would you be tall, or short?”

Next they came to a garden, enclosed by a high wall, with a wicket gate at one end. The Pig entered by the gate and, after having eaten his fill of the vegetables within, came out, laughing at the poor Camel, who had had to stay outside, because he was too tall to enter the garden by the gate, and said: “Now, would you be tall, or short?”

Then they thought the matter over, and came to the conclusion that the Camel should keep his hump and the Pig his snout, observing: “Tall is good, where tall would do; if short, again, ’tis also true!”

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