How the Leopard got His Spots (2 of 3)

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HOW THE LEOPARD GOT HIS SPOTS (CONT'D)


'What is this,' said the Leopard, 'that is so 'sclusively dark,

and yet so full of little pieces of light?'

'I don't know, said the Ethiopian, 'but it ought to be the
aboriginal Flora. I can smell Giraffe, and I can hear Giraffe,
but I can't see Giraffe.'

'That's curious,' said the Leopard. 'I suppose it is because
we have just come in out of the sunshine. I can smell Zebra, and
I can hear Zebra, but I can't see Zebra.'

'Wait a bit, said the Ethiopian. 'It's a long time since we've
hunted 'em. Perhaps we've forgotten what they were like.'

'Fiddle!' said the Leopard. 'I remember them perfectly on the
High Veldt, especially their marrow-bones. Giraffe is about
seventeen feet high, of a 'sclusively fulvous golden-yellow from
head to heel; and Zebra is about four and a half feet high, of
a'sclusively grey-fawn colour from head to heel.'

'Umm, said the Ethiopian, looking into the speckly-spickly
shadows of the aboriginal Flora-forest. 'Then they ought to
show up in this dark place like ripe bananas in a smokehouse.'

But they didn't. The Leopard and the Ethiopian hunted all day;
and though they could smell them and hear them, they never saw
one of them.

'For goodness' sake,' said the Leopard at tea-time, 'let us wait
till it gets dark. This daylight hunting is a perfect scandal.'

So they waited till dark, and then the Leopard heard something
breathing sniffily in the starlight that fell all stripy through
the branches, and he jumped at the noise, and it smelt like
Zebra, and it felt like Zebra, and when he knocked it down it
kicked like Zebra, but he couldn't see it. So he said, 'Be
quiet, O you person without any form. I am going to sit on your
head till morning, because there is something about you that I
don't understand.'

Presently he heard a grunt and a crash and a scramble, and the
Ethiopian called out, 'I've caught a thing that I can't see. It
smells like Giraffe, and it kicks like Giraffe, but it hasn't any
form.'

'Don't you trust it,' said the Leopard. 'Sit on its head till
the morning--same as me. They haven't any form--any of 'em.'

So they sat down on them hard till bright morning-time, and then
Leopard said, 'What have you at your end of the table, Brother?'

The Ethiopian scratched his head and said, 'It ought to be
'sclusively a rich fulvous orange-tawny from head to heel, and it
ought to be Giraffe; but it is covered all over with chestnut
blotches. What have you at your end of the table, Brother?'

And the Leopard scratched his head and said, 'It ought to be
'sclusively a delicate greyish-fawn, and it ought to be Zebra;
but it is covered all over with black and purple stripes. What in
the world have you been doing to yourself, Zebra? Don't you know
that if you were on the High Veldt I could see you ten miles off?
You haven't any form.'

'Yes,' said the Zebra, 'but this isn't the High Veldt. Can't you
see?'

'I can now,' said the Leopard. 'But I couldn't all
yesterday. How is it done?'

'Let us up,' said the Zebra, 'and we will show you.

They let the Zebra and the Giraffe get up; and Zebra moved away
to some little thorn-bushes where the sunlight fell all stripy,
and Giraffe moved off to some tallish trees where the shadows
fell all blotchy.

'Now watch,' said the Zebra and the Giraffe. 'This is the way
it's done. One--two--three! And where's your breakfast?'

Leopard stared, and Ethiopian stared, but all they could see were
stripy shadows and blotched shadows in the forest, but never a
sign of Zebra and Giraffe. They had just walked off and hidden
themselves in the shadowy forest.

'Hi! Hi!' said the Ethiopian. 'That's a trick worth learning.
Take a lesson by it, Leopard. You show up in this dark place
like a bar of soap in a coal-scuttle.'

'Ho! Ho!' said the Leopard. 'Would it surprise you very much to
know that you show up in this dark place like a mustard-plaster
on a sack of coals?'

'Well, calling names won't catch dinner, said the Ethiopian.

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