How the Whale Became Read Online Free PDF Page A

portions of the meat.
    Afterwards, when Leopard has eaten his fill and strolled off to sleep, Hyena stops laughing. Then, at dusk, and on bent legs so as not to be seen, he runs in and tears and gulps all night long at the bones and scraps and rags of meat that are left.

How the Tortoise Became
    When God made a creature, he first of all shaped it in clay. Then he baked it in the ovens of the sun until it was hard. Then he took it out of the oven and, when it was cool, breathed life into it. Last of all, he pulled its skin on to it like a tight jersey.
    All the animals got different skins. If it was a cold day, God would give to the animals he made on that day a dense, woolly skin. Snow was falling heavily when he made the sheep and the bears.
    If it was a hot day, the new animals got a thin skin. On the day he made greyhounds and dachshunds and boys and girls, the weather was so hot God had to wear a sun hat and was calling endlessly for iced drinks.
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    Now on the day he made Torto, God was so hot the sweat was running down on to the tips of his fingers.
    After baking Torto in the oven, God took him out to cool. Then he flopped back in his chair and ordered Elephant to fan him with its ears. He had made Elephant only a few days before and was verypleased with its big flapping ears. At last he thought  that Torto must surely be cool.

    ‘He’s had as long as I usually give a little thing like him,’ he said, and picking up Torto, he breathed life into him. As he did so, he found out his mistake.
    Torto was not cool. Far from it. On that hot day, with no cooling breezes, Torto had remained scorching hot. Just as he was when he came out of the oven.
    ‘Ow!’ roared God. He dropped Torto and went hopping away on one leg to the other end of his workshop, shaking his burnt fingers.
    ‘Ow, ow, ow!’ he roared again, and plunged his hand into a dish of butter to cure the burns.
    Torto meanwhile lay on the floor, just alive, groaning with the heat.
    ‘Oh, I’m so hot!’ he moaned. ‘So hot! The heat. Oh, the heat!’
    God was alarmed that he had given Torto life before he was properly cooled.
    ‘Just a minute, Torto,’ he said. ‘I’ll have a nice, thin, cooling skin on you in a jiffy. Then you’ll feel better.’
    But Torto wanted no skin. He was too hot as it was.
    ‘No, no!’ he cried. ‘I shall stifle. Let me go without a skin for a few days. Let me cool off first.’
    ‘That’s impossible,’ said God. ‘All creatures must have skins.’
    ‘No, no!’ cried Torto, wiping the sweat from his little brow. ‘No skin!’
    ‘Yes!’ cried God.
    ‘No!’ cried Torto.
    ‘Yes!’
    ‘No!’
    God made a grab at Torto, who ducked and ran like lightning under a cupboard. Without any skin to cumber his movements, Torto felt very light and agile.
    ‘Come out!’ roared God, and got down on his knees to grope under the cupboard for Torto.
    In a flash, Torto was out from under the other end of the cupboard, and while God was still struggling to his feet, he ran out through the door and into the world, without a skin.
    The first thing he did was to go to a cool pond and plunge straight into it. There he lay, for several days, just cooling off. Then he came out and began to live among the other creatures. But he was still very hot. Whenever he felt his own heat getting too much for him, he retired to his pond to cool off in the water. In this way, he found life pleasant enough.
    Except for one thing. The other creatures didn’t approve of Torto.
    They all had skins. When they saw Torto without a skin, they were horrified.
    ‘But he has no skin!’ cried Porcupine.
    ‘It’s disgusting!’ cried Yak. ‘It’s indecent!’
    ‘He’s not normal. Leave him to himself,’ said Sloth.
    So all the animals began to ignore Torto. But they couldn’t ignore him completely, because he was a wonderfully swift runner, and whenever they held a race, he won it. He was so nimble without a skinthat none of the other creatures