Fairy Tale Junction

A Compendium of Fairy Tales I remember
...for my children

The Camel and The Pig

An Old Hindu Fable

This old time tale was taken from the Boys' and Girls' Fifth Reader 1919 edition.

A Camel said, "Nothing like being tall! See how tall I am!"

A Pig who heard these words said, "Nothing like being short! See how short I am!"

The Camel said, "Well, if I fail to prove the truth of what I said, I will give up my hump."

The Pig said, "If I fail to prove the truth of what I said, I will give up my snout."

"Agreed!" said the Camel.

"Just so!" said the Pig.

They came to a garden inclosed* by a low wall without any opening. The Camel stood on this side of 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 having a look at the good things in the garden, and said, "Now, would you be tall or short?"

Next they came to a garden inclosed* 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;
Of short, again, 'tis also true!"

* English teachers and other punctilious readers: the word is spelled inclosed in the "Boys' and Girls' Readers - Fifth Reader, copyright 1919, published by Houghton Mifflin.

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