Just So Stories | Page 4

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-knife--He swallowed them all
down into his warm, dark, inside cup-boards, and then he smacked his
lips--so, 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 Whale's 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 shouldn't, and the Whale felt most unhappy
indeed. (Have you forgotten the suspenders?)
So he said to the 'Stute Fish, 'This man is very nubbly, and besides he is
making me hiccough. What shall I do?'
'Tell him to come out,' said the 'Stute Fish.
So the Whale called down his own throat to the shipwrecked Mariner,
'Come out and behave yourself. I've got the hiccoughs.'
'Nay, nay!' said the Mariner. 'Not so, but far otherwise. Take me to my
natal-shore and the white-cliffs-of-Albion, and I'll think about it.' And

he began to dance more than ever.
'You had better take him home,' said the 'Stute Fish to the Whale. 'I
ought to have warned you that he is a man of
infinite-resource-and-sagacity.'
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 Mariner's
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,
'Change here for Winchester, Ashuelot, Nashua, Keene, and stations on
the _Fitch_burg Road;' and just as he said 'Fitch' 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 Whale's throat, and there it stuck!
Then he recited the following Sloka, which, as you have not heard it, I
will now proceed to relate--
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 'Stute 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 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