How the Whale Became by Ted Hughes Page B

far, far edge of the world, beyond all hills. Such a trick the creatures had played on him, saying the moon wanted to marry him.
    But he didn’t give up.
    Soon he began to change. With endlessly gazing at the moon he began to get the moonlight in his eyes, giving him a wild, startled look. And with racing from hill to hill he grew to be a wonderful runner. Especially up the hills – he just shot up them. And from leaping to reach her when he was too late,he came to be a great leaper. And from listening and listening, all through the night, for what the moon was saying high in the sky, he got his long, long ears.

How the Elephant Became
    The unhappiest of all the creatures was Bombo. Bombo didn’t know what to become. At one time he thought he might make a fairly good horse. At another time he thought that perhaps he was meant to be a kind of bull. But it was no good. Not only the horses, but all the other creatures too, gathered to laugh at him when he tried to be a horse. And when he tried to be a bull, the bulls just walked away shaking their heads.
    ‘Be yourself,’ they all said.
    Bombo sighed. That’s all he ever heard: ‘Be yourself. Be yourself. ’ What was himself? That’s what he wanted to know.
    So most of the time he just stood, with sad eyes, letting the wind blow his ears this way and that, while the other creatures raced around him and above him, perfecting themselves.
    ‘I’m just stupid,’ he said to himself. ‘Just stupid and slow and I shall never become anything.’
    That was his main trouble, he felt sure. He was much too slow and clumsy – and so big! None of the other creatures were anywhere near so big. Hesearched hard to find another creature as big as he was, but there was not one. This made him feel all the more silly and in the way.
    But this was not all. He had great ears that flapped and hung, and a long, long nose. His nose was useful. He could pick things up with it. But none of the other creatures had a nose anything like it. They all had small neat noses, and they laughed at his. In fact, with that, and his ears, and his long white sticking-out tusks, he was a sight.
    As he stood, there was a sudden thunder of hooves. Bombo looked up in alarm.
    ‘Aside, aside, aside!’ roared a huge voice. ‘We’re going down to drink.’
    Bombo managed to force his way backwards into a painful clump of thorn-bushes, just in time to let Buffalo charge past with all his family. Their long black bodies shone, their curved horns tossed, their tails screwed and curled, as they pounded down towards the water in a cloud of dust. The earth shook under them.
    ‘There’s no doubt,’ said Bombo, ‘who they are. If only I could be as sure of what I am as Buffalo is of what he is.’
    Then he pulled himself together.
    ‘To be myself,’ he said aloud, ‘I shall have to do something that no other creature does. Lion roars and pounces, and Buffalo charges up and down bellowing. Each of these creatures does something that no other creature does. So. What shall I do?’
    He thought hard for a minute.
    Then he lay down, rolled over on to his back, andwaved his four great legs in the air. After that he stood on his head and lifted his hind legs straight up as if he were going to sunburn the soles of his feet. From this position, he lowered himself back on to his four feet, stood up and looked round. The others should soon get to know me by that, he thought.
    Nobody was in sight, so he waited until a pack of wolves appeared on the horizon. Then he began again. On to his back, his legs in the air, then on to his head, and his hind legs straight up.
    ‘Phew!’ he grunted, as he lowered himself. ‘I shall need some practice before I can keep this up for long.’
    When he stood up and looked round him this second time, he got a shock. All the animals were round him in a ring, rolling on their sides with laughter.
    ‘Do it again! Oh, do it again!’ they were crying, as they rolled and laughed. ‘Do it