You
all know, of course, why some animals are the way they are. For instance, the giraffe’s neck is as long
as it is because he was so snooty that he wouldn’t talk to or even look at the
other animals and he kept stretching his neck farther and farther until it just
stayed that way. But did you know about
the elephant and his trunk? No? That’s all right, I’m going to tell you.
One
African elephant, Elroy, who lived in the jungle was very prone to allergies. He was allergic to many of the local plants. Neither handkerchiefs nor Kleenex had been
invented yet so people and animals used to wipe their noses with their shirts
or arms after they sneezed. Elephants
are so big, you can just imagine the mess he made. They used to have snouts, like pigs.
One
day Elroy was walking through the jungle and sneezing every few minutes. He would eat some grass and sneeze. He would say hello to another animal and
sneeze. He would drink some water and
sneeze. His fairy godmother (yes,
animals have fairy godmothers, too!) appeared before him and he sneezed on her,
too. She got upset at first, but he
apologized profusely and she realized he couldn’t help it.
She
moved behind him, where she would be safer, and told him that she would grant
him one wish because he had just stepped on a snake and she was deathly afraid
of snakes. Elroy told her that he didn’t
do it on purpose, that he was clumsy and stepped on a lot of animals without
even knowing it. She said that was okay,
that made one less snake anyway, and that he could still have a wish. She told him to think carefully before he
made his request, because one wish was all union rules permitted.
Elroy
thought and thought and finally said, “I’m so tired of sneezing all over
myself. I really wish you could do
something about my allergies.” She told
him to give her a few minutes to think of something. After due consideration, she said, “I‘m
sorry, Elroy, but I can’t get rid of your allergies because antihistamines will
be discovered in a few hundred years and the makers of Benadryl and Claritin
would probably sue me retroactively.
Would you settle for a really long, flexible nose so you could at least
aim your sneezes up in the air or over your shoulder?”
The
elephant thought about it and decided that was better than nothing so he
accepted her offer. After using his new nose it for a
while, Elroy decided that it was much better than the old one,
allergies or no allergies. He could get
grass off the jungle floor with it and pluck delicious leaves from the trees. He could get a drink without sticking his
face in the water and even take a shower.
He could lift things and carry them around. When he got a girlfriend, he could wrap his
nose around her shoulders. Elroy’s new
nose could do so many things that all the elephants who saw it wanted one just
like it.
Their fairy godmothers decided that it would be a lot less work if elephants were born that way rather than to change them individually, so they got together and made it happen. There’s not an elephant I’ve talked to, either African or Asian, that would prefer that old style nose.
Their fairy godmothers decided that it would be a lot less work if elephants were born that way rather than to change them individually, so they got together and made it happen. There’s not an elephant I’ve talked to, either African or Asian, that would prefer that old style nose.
Be yourself--who else can you be?----fishducky
