[Illustration]
You must know that just outside of the forest where Beppo lived with
his family there was a great big lake, in which lived a crocodile
that was about two thousand years old. The name of the crocodile was
Araba-Babba. He had become blind on account of old age, and, not
being able to gain a mouthful of bread by the sweat of his brow, he
was condemned to live night and day at the edge of the lake, with his
mouth always opened wide, so that any passer-by, be it man or beast,
moved by compassion, might throw into that large mouth some food, so
that he could live another thousand years. And all the passers-by, be
they man or beast, always threw something into that crocodile’s mouth.
Even Beppo frequently threw in something; but that scoundrel, instead
of giving fruit or dead fish, amused himself by putting into the
mouth at one time a handful of stones, at another time a bundle of
tooth-picks, at another time a nail or a rusty horse-shoe that he had
found along the road.
But the old crocodile never grew angry. Quite the contrary!
He quietly spat out the stones, the tooth-picks, the nails, and the
horse-shoes, and usually shook his head as if to say: “Take care,
little rogue! Sooner or later something will happen!”
One day Beppo, taken aback by seeing that his tricks did not affect
the crocodile, asked him, “Tell me, Araba, since you have been in the
world, have you never found impertinent people that have given you
affronts or have played upon you impolite tricks?”
“Oh, yes, I have found them! In the world I have also found some like
you, more impertinent than flies.”
“Tell me, Araba, and when these rogues are disrespectful, do you
never resent it?”
“My dear boy, in so many years of life I have learned that the
greatest virtue of old age is that of knowing how to endure children
with patience and resignation.”
“Then, since you have been in the world, you have never gotten angry,
never, never?”
The crocodile, before responding, thought a little and then said:
“One time only. And do you know what it was that made me angry? It
was a little monkey just your age”--
“And what did this little monkey do?” asked Beppo, with lively
interest.
“The little scoundrel--I hardly know how to tell you--found out that
I was ticklish on the point of my nose. Then what do you think he
did to annoy me? He mounted one of the trees around the lake, and
let himself down from a branch, so that he touched my nose with the
tip of his tail. Just imagine! I was taken with such a convulsion of
laughter that I laughed and danced in the water a whole week without
stopping. I thought I should die.”
“Truly! Poor Araba!” said Beppo, with false compassion.
“And after that,” continued Araba, “he went away, and to all the
monkeys he met on the road he repeated, laughing, these words: ‘Do
you wish to amuse yourself? Do you wish to see old Araba dance? Come
to the lake to-morrow morning, and I will show you the funniest thing
you ever saw in all your life.’ The next morning, my dear Beppo, as
you can easily imagine, there were hundreds of monkeys on the lake.
All waited to see me do the ring dance.”
Beppo, hearing this, quickly mounted to a tree that leaned over
the water, and let himself down so that he could just touch the
crocodile’s nose with his tail. But scarcely had the crocodile felt
Beppo’s tail on the end of his nose when he closed his mouth, and,
zaff! in a second he pulled off Beppo’s tail clean to the first joint.
The little monkey gave a cry of grief, and, jumping down from the
tree, ran quickly into the forest. Arriving near home--but I will
leave you to imagine how Beppo felt when he placed his hand behind
him and perceived that he had no tail. The tail had remained in the
mouth of the crocodile, who had by that time nicely digested it.
Desperate and ashamed to go home to his family in that pitiful state,
Beppo ran along a small road until it became night. Finally, being
so tired that he could not run any more, he threw himself on a small
heap of fodder, in order to sleep a little.
And while he slept he heard a small voice whispering in his ear,--
“Give me back my pipe.”
The little monkey, awakened and nearly scared to death, wished to run
away, but he could not, because in less time than one can say it he
was grabbed, put into a sack, and loaded on the back of a beast with
four legs. He felt himself being carried away.
“What beast can that be that carries me away with so much haste?” he
thought, trembling with fear. “If it should be a lion, I am lost. If
it should be a tiger, worse than ever! If it should be a hyena or a
leopard, there is no help for me. Oh, poor, poor me! What beast is it
that carries me away with so much haste?”
[Illustration]
Happily, the beast began to bray, and then Beppo felt his heart
swell with satisfaction.
That bray was the only consolation that poor Beppo had during his
mysterious trip, enclosed in a sack.