Folk Tales
Author's Tales
Once upon a time there lived a man who had a Cat and also some Chickens and Geese.
Summer came, it was very hot, and the Geese set out to look for water. They walked and they walked and they met a Chicken.
"Where are you going, Geese?" asked the Chicken.
"To look for water. It's so very hot out."
"I'll come with you," the Chicken said, opening wide her beak, for she felt very hot too.
"Go ahead!"
So the Geese and the Chicken went on, they walked and they walked, and they met a Cat.
"Where are you going?" asked the Cat.
"To look for water."
"May I come with you?"
"Go ahead!"
So the Geese, the Chicken and the Cat went on together.
They walked and they walked, and by and by they came to a lake. The Geese flapped their wings and flew straight for the water, they swam and played about in it, and they liked it so much that they honked loudly in pleasure.
The Chicken and the Cat stood on the shore and looked on. The sun blazed away in the sky, and they would have liked to take a dip but were afraid to. They looked at the- water, and they saw a Chicken and a Cat just like themselves in it.
"Those two are not afraid, so why should we be!" they said.
They jumped into the water and nearly drowned, and they were only able to climb out onto the shore with the greatest of difficulty.
The Cat looked at the lake and felt so bad that he was seized with a fit of shivering. He shook off the water and said:
"I will never be so foolish as to try to swim again. I can wash myself very well sitting on a stove.”
"I'll never be so foolish either," said the Chicken.
"I can get myself just as clean by taking a dust bath."
And with that they set out for home.
The Chicken saw some dust on the road and flapped her wings for joy.
"I am going to take a dust bath!” she cried. "It's a hundred times more enjoyable!”
And the Cat whisked into the hut, sprang up onto the stove, and, purring loudly, began licking himself all over.
"I'll never trade the stove for a lake," he said. "Who wants to swim!”
And from that day on Geese have always bathed in water, Cats washed themselves sitting on the top of a stove, and Chickens taken dust baths.
And he who doesn't believe this can watch them and see for himself!