Page 31 - English Reader - 4

That made the Three very angry. They held a convention, a conference, and a meeting

on the edge of the desert; and the Camel came by chewing on milkweed. He saw the
Three and laughed at them. Then he said “Humph!” and went away again.

Soon there came along the Djinn in charge of all deserts, rolling in a cloud of dust (Djinns
always travel that way because it is Magic), and he stopped to gossip and chitchat with

the Three.
“Djinn of all Deserts,” said the Horse, “is it right for any one to be idle, while others

work?”

“Certainly not,” said the Djinn.

“Well,” said the Horse, “there’s a thing in the middle of your Howling Desert. He’s a
Howler himself. He has a long neck and long legs, and he hasn’t done a stroke of work

since Monday morning. He won’t trot.”
“Whew!” said the Djinn, whistling, “that’s Bubbles, my Camel, for sure. What does

he say about it?”

“He says ‘Humph!’ and he won’t fetch and carry”, said the Dog.
“Does he say anything else?” asked the Djinn

“Only ‘Humph!’ and he won’t plough,” said the Ox.

“That’s not good,” said the Djinn. “I’ll teach him a lesson if you will

kindly wait a minute.”

The Djinn rolled himself up in his dust-cloud, and
swooped across the desert, and found the Camel
sitting by a little pool of water, looking at his own

reflection and munching away without a care.

“My dear friend Bubbles,” said the Djinn,

“what’s this I hear of you doing no work,
when there is so much to be

done?”

“Humph!” said the Camel.

The Djinn sat down, with

his chin in his hand, and
began to think what to do

while the Camel continued to look at his own reflection in the pool of water.

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