英语小故事 The Monkey and The Crocodile 猴子与鳄鱼(精美彩色插图)

2021年1月26日发(作者：转化率)

Retold from the Panchatantram by Rohini Chowdhury

Once there lived a monkey in a jamun tree by a river.
The monkey was alone - he had no friends, no family,
but he was happy and content. The jamun tree gave
him plenty of sweet fruit to eat, and shade from the sun
and shelter from the rain.

One day a crocodile came swimming up the river and
climbed on to the bank to rest under the monkey's tree.
'Hello', called the monkey, who was a friendly animal.
'Hello', replied the crocodile, surprised. 'Do you know where I can get some
food?' he asked. 'I haven't had anything to eat all day - there just don't seem to
be any fish left in the river.'

'Well,' said the monkey, 'I don't eat fish so I wouldn't know - but I do have
plenty of ripe purple jamuns in my tree. Would you like to try some?' He threw
some down to the crocodile. The crocodile was so hungry that he ate up all the
jamuns even though crocodiles don't eat fruit. He loved the sweet tangy fruit
and shyly asked whether he could have some more. 'Of course', replied the
monkey generously, throwing down more fruit. 'Come back whene
ver you feel
like more fruit', he added when the crocodile had eaten his fill.

After that the crocodile would visit the monkey
every day. The two animals soon became
friends - they would talk and tell each other
stories, and eat as much of the sweet jamuns as
they wanted. The monkey would throw down all the fruit the crocodile wanted
from his tree.

One day the crocodile began talking about his wife and family. 'Why didn't you
tell me earlier that you had a wife?' asked the monkey. 'Please take some of
the jamuns for her as well when you go back today.' The crocodile thanked him
and took some of the fruit for his wife.

The crocodile's wife loved the jamuns. She had never eaten anything so sweet
before. 'Imagine', she said, 'how sweet would be the creature who eats these
jamuns every day. The monkey has eaten these every day of his life - his flesh
would be even sweeter than the fruit.' She asked her husband to invite the
monkey for a meal - 'and then we can eat him up' she said happily.