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

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[99 - hairy paw – волосатая (страшная) лапа]. 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[100 - the Precession of the Equinoxes – астроном. Пре-цессия, Предварение равноденствий] this ’satiable Elephant’s 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[101 - in a loud and dretful (dreadful) tone – громким грозным тоном], and they spanked him immediately and directly, without stopping for a long time.

By and by[102 - by and by – вскоре], 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 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 fever-trees, and find out.

’

That very next morning, when there was nothing left of the Equinoxes, because the Precession had preceded according to the precedent, this ’satiable Elephant’s 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, �Good-bye.

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.