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

And Pau Amma? You can see when you go to the beach, how all Pau Amma’s babies make little Pusat Taseks for themselves under every stone and bunch of weed on the sands; you can see them waving their little scissors[287]; and in some parts of the world they truly live on the dry land and turn up the palm-trees and eat coconuts, exactly as the girl-daughter promised. But once a year all Pau Ammas must shake off their hard armour and be soft – to remind them of what the Eldest Magician could do. And so it isn’t fair to kill or hunt Pau Amma’s babies just because old Pau Amma was stupidly rude a very long time ago.

Oh yes! And Pau Amma’s babies hate being taken out of their little Pusat Taseks and brought home in the pickle-bottles. That is why they nip[288] you with their scissors, and it serves you right!

China-going P. & O.’s
Pass Pau Amma’s playground close,
And his Pusat Tasek lies
Near the track of most B.I.’s.
N.Y.K. and N.D.L.
Know Pau Amma’s home as well
As the Fisher of the Sea knows
‘Bens,’ M.M.’s and Rubattinos.
But (and this is rather queer[289]

)A.T.L.’s can not come here;
O. and O. and D.O.A.
Must go round another way.
Orient, Anchor, Bibby, Hall,
Never go that way at all.
U.C.S. would have a fit
If it founds itself on it.
And if ‘Beavers’ took their cargoes[290]
To Penang instead of Lagos,
Of a fat Shaw-Savill bore
Passengers to Singapore,
Or a White Star were to try a
Little trip to Sourabaya,
Or a B.S.A.[291] went on
Past Natal to Cheribon,
Then great Mr. Lloyds would come
With a wire and drag[292] them home.

You’ll know what my riddle means

When you’ve eaten mangosteens[293].

Or if you can’t wait till then, ask them to let you have the outside page of the Times; turn over the page 2, where it is marked ‘Shipping’ on the top left hand; then take the Atlas (and that is the finest picture-book in the world) and see how the names of the places that the steamers go to fit into the names of the places on the map. Any steamer-kiddy ought to be able to do that; but if you can’t read, ask some one to show it to you.

Questions and tasks

1. Retell the beginning of the story.

2. Was the Sea obedient to the Man? Why?

3. Who was playing with the Sea? Was it the Fisherman? How did the Eldest Magician know who it was?

4. What was happening when Pau Amma went out and returned to the Sea?

5. Was Pau Amma real? How did the Eldest Magician find it out?

6. Did Pau Amma take all the gifts? What were they?

7. What happened to Pau Amma after all?

8. What were the consequences of the story?

9. Make up the plan of the story and retell it.

The Cat that Walked by Himself

Hear and attend and listen; for this befell[294] and be-happened and became and was, O my Best Beloved, when the Tame animals[295] were wild. The Dog was wild, and the Horse was wild, and the Cow was wild, and the Sheep was wild, and the Pig was wild – as wild as could be – and they walked in the Wet Wild Woods by their wild lones. But the wildest of all the wild animals was the Cat. He walked by himself, and all places were alike to[296] him.

Of course the Man was wild too. He was dreadfully wild. He didn’t even to begin to be tame till he met the Woman, and she told him that she did not like living in his wild ways. She picked out a nice dry Cave, instead of a heap of wet leaves, to lie down in; and she strewed clean sand on the floor; and she lit a nice fire of wood at the back of the Cave; and she hung a dried wild-horse skin, tail-down, across the opening of the Cave; and she said, ‘Wipe your feet, dear, when you come in, and now we’ll keep house[297].’