‘Tell him to come out,’ said the Astute Fish.
So the Whale cried to the shipwrecked Mariner, ‘Come out and behave yourself[7]. I hiccup because of you.’
‘No, no!’ said the Mariner. ‘Take me home first!’
And he began to dance again.
‘You must take him home,’ said the Astute Fish to the Whale. ‘There is no other way.’
So the Whale swam and swam and swam, with both flippers and his tail, as fast as he could. At last he saw the Mariner’s land, and he rushed to the beach, and opened his mouth wide and wide and wide, and said,
‘Walk out!’
And the Mariner walked out of his mouth. But the Mariner was very cunning: he took his jack-knife and cut up the raft into a little square grating, and he tied it with his suspenders, and he dragged that grating into the Whale’s! Then he sang the song:
With this grating,
I stop your eating.
After that the Mariner stepped out on the shingle, and went home to his mother. Then he married and lived happily enough.
But from that day on, with that grating – which was in the Whale’s throat – the Whale could eat nothing except very, very small fish. That is the reason why whales nowadays never eat men or boys or little girls.
The small Astute Fish went away and hid himself in the mud. It was afraid that the Whale was angry with it.
How the Camel got his hump
In the beginning of years, when the world was so new, and the animals began to work for Man, there was a Camel. He lived in the middle of a Howling Desert[8]because he did not want to work. Besides, he was a Howler[9] himself. So he ate sticks and thorns and tamarisks and milkweed and prickles. When anybody spoke to him he said ‘Humph!’ Just ‘Humph!’ 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,
‘Camel, O Camel, come out and trot like the rest of us.’
‘Humph!’ 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,
‘Camel, O Camel, come and fetch and carry like the rest of us.’
‘Humph!’ 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,
‘Camel, O Camel, come and plough like the rest of us.’
‘Humph!’ said the Camel; and the Ox went away and told the Man.