Folk Tales
Author's Tales
One day, a little fish was out swimming in the river with her mother. The water was clear and warm, but the little fish wanted to swim faster and go farther. So she swam on and on till she reached the river bank. She looked, and there, growing on the bank, she saw a large bean
stalk and on the bean stalk, a big, fat bean. The little fish thought that she had never seen anything so funny.
"Hello there, Fatso!” she called to the bean.
"Hello, Midge!" the bean called back.
The little fish felt very hurt that she should be called that. She burst into tears and hurried off to complain to her mother about it.
"Oh, Mother!" she wailed. "That big fat bean called me Midge, of all things! I'm not as tiny as that, am I? I even have a tail!"
"Perhaps you hurt the bean's feelings yourself in some way,” said the mother fish.
"Oh, no, mother dear, I didn't!"
"Well, let's swim back to the bank again and I'll ask the bean what made him say such a thing."
And the two of them, mother and daughter, made for the bank.
"Good morning, Mr. Bean!" the mother fish called.
"Good morning to you, Mrs. Fish!" the bean called back.
"Tell me, Mr. Bean, what made you hurt my little daughter's feelings?
Why did you call her Midge?"
"She only got as good as she gave. She called me Fatso, so I called
her Midge in return!”