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

�Humph!’ said the Camel; and the Horse went away and told the Man.

Presently the Dog came to him, with a stick in his mouth, and said, �Camel, O Camel, come and fetch and carry like the rest of us.’

�Humph!’ said the Camel; and the Dog went away and told the Man.

Presently the Ox came to him, with the yoke on his neck, and said, �Camel, O Camel, come and plough[28 - to plough – пахать] like the rest of us.’

�Humph!’ said the Camel; and the Ox went away and told the Man.

At the end of the day the Man called the Horse and the Dog and the Ox together, and said, �Three, O Three, I’m very sorry for you (with the world so new-and-all); but that Humph-thing in the Desert can’t work, or he would have been here by now, so I am going to leave him alone, and you must work double-time to make up for it.’

That made the Three very angry (with the world so new-and-all); and they held a palaver[29 - to hold a palaver – вести длительные перего-воры], and indaba, and a punchayet, and a pow-wow[30 - indaba – встреча; punchayet – панчает (совет, собрание в Южной Азии); pow-wow – знахарь; цере-мония заклинания; сборище, совет; ярмарка] on the edge of the Desert; and the Camel came chewing milkweed most ’scruciating idler, and laughed at them.

Presently there came along the Djinn in charge of All Deserts, rolling in a cloud of dust (Djinns always travel that way because it is Magic), and he stopped to palaver and pow-wow with the Three.

�Djinn of All Deserts,’ said the Horse, �is it right for any one to be idle, with the world so new-and-all?’

�Certainly not’, said the Djinn.

�Well,’ said the Horse, �there’s a thing in the middle of your Howling Desert (and he’s a Howler himself) with a long neck and long legs, and he hasn’t done a stroke of work[32 - He hasn’t done a stroke of work – Он палец о па-лец не ударил; to do some work – выполнять работу] since Monday morning.

Here is the picture of the Djinn in charge of All Deserts guiding the Magic with the magic fan.