Just So Stories 精彩片段：
THE ELEPHANT'S CHILD
IN the High and Far-Off Times the Elephant, O Best Beloved, had no trunk. He had only a blackish, bulgy nose, as big as a boot, that he could wriggle about from side to side; but he couldnt pick up things with it. But there was one Elephant--a new Elephant--an Elephants Child--who was full of satiable curtiosity, and that means he asked ever so many questions. And he lived in Africa, and he filled all Africa with his satiable curtiosities. He asked his tall aunt, the Ostrich, why her tail-feathers grew just so, and his tall aunt the Ostrich spanked him with her hard, hard claw. He asked his tall uncle, the Giraffe, what made his skin spotty, and his tall uncle, the Giraffe, spanked him with his hard, hard hoof. And still 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. 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 this satiable Elephants 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, and they spanked him immediately and directly, without stopping, for a long time.
By and by, 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; all my aunts and uncles have 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 with fever-trees, and find out.
That very next morning, when there was nothing left of the Equinoxes, because the Precession had preceded according to precedent, this satiable Elephants 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, Goodbye. 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, because he could not pick it up.
He went from Grahams Town to Kimberley, and from Kimberley to Khamas Country, and from Khamas 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, and day, and hour, and minute, this satiable Elephants Child had never seen a Crocodile, and did not know what one was like. It was all his satiable curtiosity.
The first thing that he found was a Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake curled round a rock.
Scuse me, said the Elephants Child most politely, but have you seen such a thing as a Crocodile in these 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 Elephants 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 Elephants Child with his scalesome, flailsome tail.
That is odd, said the Elephants 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.