Page:An argosy of fables.djvu/524

 452 THE WREN AND THE CAMEL

PAIR of Wrens once built their nest in a hedge beside a highway. Soon after the eggs were hatched, a Camel happened to pass that way. The little Wrens saw him, and said to the father bird, when he returned from the fields:

"Oh, papa, a monstrous big animal came by here just now."

The wren stretched out one leg: "As big as that, my children?"

"Oh, papa, much bigger than that!"

The Wren stretched out a leg and a wing: "As big as that, my children?"

"Oh, papa, much bigger."

Finally the Wren spread out both wings and legs: "As big as that, then?"

"Oh, yes, much bigger!"

"That is impossible, my children, for there is no animal bigger than I!"

"Just you wait and you will see for yourself," said the little Wrens.

Presently the Camel came back, browsing along the hedge. The Wren was perched beside his nest; and the Camel, biting off a bunch of leaves, and not seeing the bird, took him in with them. The Wren, however, flew out safe and sound between the Camel's big teeth, and hurried back to his children.

"You are quite right," he said. "The Camel is a monstrous big animal. But I am pretty well satisfied with myself, just the same."

(Kabyle Fable. From Collection de Contes et Chansons Populaires.)