Сказки / Fairy Tales. Уровень 1

This was very bad for the Giraffe and the Zebra and the rest of them, because he liked to lie down by a yellowish-greyish-brownish stone or clump of grass, and when the Giraffe or the Zebra or the Eland or the Koodoo or the Bush-Buck or the Bonte-Buck came by he jumped and caught them. He did so! And, also, there was an Ethiopian with bows and arrows (a exclusively greyish-brownish-yellowish man), who lived on the High Veldt with the Leopard. The two hunted together – the Ethiopian with his bows and arrows, and the Leopard exclusively with his teeth and claws – till the Giraffe and the Eland and the Koodoo and the Quagga and all the rest of them didn’t know which way to jump.

They didn’t indeed!

After a long time, the animals learned to avoid anything that looked like a Leopard or an Ethiopian. And bit by bit[13 - bit by bit – мало-помалу] (the Giraffe began it, because his legs were the longest) they went away from the High Veldt. They scuttled for days and days and days till they came to a great forest, exclusively full of trees and bushes and stripy, speckly shadows, and there they hid.

After another long time, the Giraffe grew blotchy, and the Zebra grew stripy, and the Eland and the Koodoo grew darker, with little wavy grey lines on their backs like bark on a tree trunk. Though you could hear them and smell them, you could very seldom see them: only when you knew precisely where to look. They had a beautiful time in that forest, while the Leopard and the Ethiopian were puzzled.

Where are their breakfasts and their dinners? At last the Leopard and the Ethiopian were so hungry that they ate rats and beetles and rock-rabbits. And they both had a terrible stomach-ache.

Then they met a Baboon, who is the wisest animal in all South Africa.

The Leopard asked the Baboon (and it was a very hot day),

‘Where are all the animals?’

And the Baboon winked. He knew.

The Ethiopian asked the Baboon,

‘Can you tell me the present habitat of the animals?’

And the Baboon winked.

He knew.

Then the Baboon said,

‘The animals went into other place; and my advice to you, Leopard, is to go there as soon as you can.’

And the Ethiopian said,

‘That is all very fine, but I wish to know where they are.’

Then the Baboon said,

‘The animals changed their place, because it was high time for a change; and my advice to you, Ethiopian, is to change as soon as you can.’

That puzzled the Leopard and the Ethiopian.