Just So Stories for Little Children / Просто сказки. Книга для чтения на английском языке. Редьярд Киплинг

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СКАЧАТЬ he was full of ’satiable curtiosity! He asked his broad aunt, the Hippopotamus, why her eyes were red, and his broad aunt, the Hippopotamus, spanked him with her broad, broad hoof; and he asked his hairy uncle, the Baboon, why melons tasted just so, and his hairy uncle, the Baboon, spanked him with his hairy, hairy paw[99]. And still he was full of ’satiable curtiosity! He asked questions about everything that he saw, or heard, or felt, or smelt, or touched, and all his uncles and his aunts spanked him. And still he was full of ’satiable curtiosity!

      One fine morning in the middle of the Precession of the Equinoxes[100] this ’satiable Elephant’s Child asked a new fine question that he had never asked before. He asked, ‘What does the Crocodile have for dinner?’ Then everybody said, ‘Hush!’ in a loud and dretful tone[101], and they spanked him immediately and directly, without stopping for a long time.

      By and by[102], when that was finished, he came upon Kolokolo Bird sitting in the middle of a wait-a-bit thorn-bush, and he said ‘My father has spanked me, and my mother has spanked me for my ’satiable curtiosity; and still I want to know what the Crocodile has for dinner!’

      Then Kolokolo Bird said, with a mournful cry, ‘Go to the banks of the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about fever-trees, and find out.’

      That very next morning, when there was nothing left of the Equinoxes, because the Precession had preceded according to the precedent, this ’satiable Elephant’s Child took a hundred pounds of bananas (the little short red kind), and a hundred pounds of sugar-cane (the long purple kind, and seventeen melons (the greeny-crackly kind), and said to all his dear families, ‘Good-bye. I am going to the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever-trees, to find out what the Crocodile has for dinner.’ And they all spanked him once more for luck, though he asked them most politely to stop.

      Then he went away, a little warm, but not at all astonished, eating melons, and throwing the rind about[103], because he could not pick it up.

      He went from Graham’s Town to Kimberley, and from Kimberley to Khama’s country, and from Khama’s Country he went east by north, eating melons all the time, till at last he came to the banks of the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever-trees, precisely as Kolokolo Bird had said.

      Now you must know and understand, O Best Beloved, that till that very week[104], and day, and hour, and minute, this satiable Elephant’s Child had never seen a Crocodile, and did not know what one was like. It was all his ’satiable curiosity.

      The first thing that he found was a Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake[105] curled round a rock.

      ‘’Scuse[106] me,’ said the Elephant’s Child most politely, ‘but have you seen such a thing as a Crocodile in this promiscuous parts?’

      ‘Have I seen a Crocodile?’ said the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake, in a voice of dretful scorn. ‘What will you ask me next?’

      ‘’Scuse me,’ said the Elephant’s Child, ‘but could you kindly tell me what he has for dinner?’

      Then the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake uncoiled himself very quickly from the rock, and spanked the Elephant’s Child with the scalesome, flailsome tail.

      ‘That is odd,’ said the Elephant’s Child, ‘because my father and my mother, and my uncle and my aunt, not to mention my other aunt, the Hippopotamus, and my other uncle, the Baboon, have all spanked me for my ’satiable curtiosity – and I suppose this is the same thing.’

      So he said good-buy very politely to the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake, and helped to coil him up on the rock again, and went on, a little warm, but not at all astonished, eating melons, and throwing the rind about, because he could not pick it up, till he trod on[107] what he thought was a log of wood at the very edge of the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever-trees.

      But it was really the Crocodile, O Best Beloved, and the Crocodile winked one eye – like this[108]!

      ‘’Scuse me,’ said the Elephant’s Child most politely, ‘but do you happen to have seen a Crocodile[109] in these promiscuous parts?’

      Then the Crocodile winked the other eye, and lifted half of his tail out of the mud; and the Elelphant’s Child stepped back most politely, because he didn’t wish to be spanked again.

      ‘Come hither, Little One,’ said the Crocodile. ‘Why do you ask so much things?’

      ‘Scuse me,’ said the Elephant’s Child most politely, ‘but my father has spanked me, my mother has spanked me, not to mention my tall aunt, the Ostrich, and my tall uncle, the Giraffe, who can kick ever so hard, as well as my broad aunt, the Hippopotamus, and my hairy uncle, the Baboon, and including the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake, with the scalesome, flail-some tail, just up the bank, who spanks harder than any of them; and so, if it’s quite all the same to you, I don’t want to be spanked any more.’

      ‘Come hither, Little One,’ said the Crocodile, ‘for I am the Crocodile,’ and he wept crocodile-tears to show it was quite true.

      Then the Elephant’s Child grew all breathless, and panted, and kneeled down on the bank and said, ‘You are the very person I have been looking for all these long days. Will you please tell me what you have for dinner?’

      ‘Come hither, Little One,’ said the Crocodile, ‘and I’ll whisper.’

      Then the Elephant’s Child put his head down close to the Crocodile’s musky, tusky mouth, and the Crocodile caught him by his little nose, which up to that very week, day, hour, and minute, had been no bigger than a boot, though much more useful.

      ‘I think,’ said the Crocodile – and he said it between his teeth, like this – ‘I think today I will begin with Elephant’s Child!’

      At this, O Best Beloved, the Elephant’s Child was much annoyed, and he said, speaking through his nose, like this, ‘Led go! You are hurtig be!’

      Then the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake scuffed down from the bank[110] and said, ‘My young friend, if you do not know, immediately and instantly, pull as hard as ever you can, it is my opinion that your acquaintance in the large-pattern leather ulster’ (and by this he meant the Crocodile) ‘will jerk you into yonder limpid stream[111] before you can say Jack Robinson.’

      This is the way Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake always talk.

      Then the Elephant’s Child sat back on his little haunches[112], and pulled, and pulled, and pulled, and his nose began to stretch. And the Crocodile floundered into the water, making it all creamy with great sweeps of his tail, and he pulled, and pulled, and pulled.

      And the Elephant’s Child’s nose kept on stretching[113]; and the Elephant’s Child spread all his little four legs and pulled, and pulled, and pulled, and his СКАЧАТЬ