How the Whale Became Read Online Free Page A

right. But he was not white. Time and again in the beauty contests he was runner-up to Polar Bear.
    ‘If it were not for her,’ he raged to himself, ‘I should be first every time.’
    He thought and thought for a plan to get rid of her. How? How? How? At last he had it.
    *
    One day he went up to Polar Bear.
    Now Peregrine Falcon had been to every country in the world. He was a great traveller, as all the creatures well knew.
    ‘I know a country,’ he said to Polar Bear, ‘which is so clean it is even whiter than you are. Yes, yes, I know, you are beautifully white, but this country is even whiter. The rocks are clear glass and the earthis frozen ice-cream. There is no dirt there, no dust, no mud. You would become whiter than ever in that country. And no one lives there. You could be queen of it.’
    Polar Bear tried to hide her excitement.
    ‘I could be queen of it, you say?’ she cried. ‘This country sounds made for me. No crowds, no dirt? And the rocks, you say, are glass?’
    ‘The rock,’ said Peregrine Falcon, ‘are mirrors.’
    ‘Wonderful!’ cried Polar Bear.
    ‘And the rain,’ he said, ‘is white face powder.’
    ‘Better than ever!’ she cried. ‘How quickly can I be there, away from all these staring crowds and all this dirt?’
    ‘I am going to another country,’ she told the other animals. ‘It is too dirty here to live.’
    Peregrine Falcon hired Whale to carry his passenger. He sat on Whale’s forehead, calling out the directions . Polar Bear sat on the shoulder, gazing at the sea. The Seals, who had begged to go with her, sat on the tail.
    After some days, they came to the North Pole, where it is all snow and ice.
    ‘Here you are,’ cried Peregrine Falcon. ‘Everything just as I said. No crowds, no dirt, nothing but beautiful clean whiteness.’
    ‘And the rocks actually are mirrors!’ cried Polar Bear, and she ran to the nearest iceberg to repair her beauty after the long trip.
    Every day now, she sat on one iceberg or another, making herself beautiful in the mirror of the ice. Always, near her, sat the Seals. Her fur becamewhiter and whiter in this new clean country. And as it became whiter, the Seals praised her beauty more and more. When she herself saw the improvement in her looks she said:
    ‘I shall never go back to that dirty old country again.’
    And there she is still, with all her admirers around her.
    *
    Peregrine Falcon flew back to the other creatures and told them that Polar Bear had gone for ever. They were all very glad, and set about making themselves beautiful at once. Every single one was saying to himself:
    ‘Now that Polar Bear is out of the way, perhaps I shall have a chance of the prize at the beauty contest.’
    And Peregrine Falcon was saying to himself:
    ‘Surely, now, I am the most beautiful of all creatures.’
    But that first contest was won by Little Brown Mouse for her pink feet.

How the Hyena Became
    One creature, a Wild-Dog-Becomer called Hyena, copied Leopard-Becomer in everything he did.
    Leopard-Becomer was already one of the most respected creatures on the plains. He was strong, swift, fierce, graceful, and had the most beautiful spotted skin.
    Hyena longed to be like this. He practised walking like him, crouching like him, pouncing like him. He studied his every move. ‘I must get it perfect,’ he kept saying to himself.
    He followed Leopard-Becomer so closely, in fact, that he never had time to go off and kill his own game. So he had to eat what Leopard left. Leopard didn’t take at all kindly to Hyena, and often made him wait a long time for the left-overs. In this way Hyena grew used to eating meat that was none too fresh.
    Nevertheless, so long as he could keep near Leopard he was satisfied.
    Only one thing could take him from Leopard’s track, and that was a chance to boast to the wild-dogs.
    ‘You’re nothing but a Wild-Dog yourself,’ they said. ‘Who do you think you are? Putting on all these Leopard airs?’
    ‘Ha ha,’