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

Then he went away, a little warm, but not at all astonished, eating melons, and throwing the rind about[103 - throwing the rind about – разбрасывая корки; rind – букв. кожура, шелуха, корка], because he could not pick it up.

He went from Graham’s Town to Kimberley, and from Kimberley to Khama’s country, and from Khama’s 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[104 - till that very week – до той самой недели], and day, and hour, and minute, this satiable Elephant’s Child had never seen a Crocodile, and did not know what one was like.

The first thing that he found was a Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake[105 - Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake – двухцветная горная змея Питон; bi – прист. дву(х); rock – скала, утес; snake – змея] curled round a rock.

�’Scuse[106 - ’Scuse = Excuse] me,’ said the Elephant’s Child most politely, �but have you seen such a thing as a Crocodile in this promiscuous parts?’

�Have I seen a Crocodile?’ said the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake, in a voice of dretful scorn.

�’Scuse me,’ said the Elephant’s 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 Elephant’s Child with the scalesome, flailsome tail.

�That is odd,’ said the Elephant’s 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.