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Show MARY GRAHAM. -BOMMER. THE WALRUS "Now the other day," said the Walrus, "I heard in a round-about way, as one might say, that some one else wanted to hear about the food I ate. "Yes, that Is what I heard. It seems that a litle girl told another little gtrl that she had heard about me and about my food aud she began to tell her friend about me and about the story she had read about me. "Well, the little friend said: "'Dear me, I'd like to read a story about the Walrus and bis food, too.' "Now that news came to me from still another person and so once more I am going to tell my story. "I have beard that thin people wanted to be fat and that fat people wanted to be thin, and that between them no one is satisfied or not quite entirely satisfied." "Weil," said the Harbor Seal, "that may be true, but it may not be true. I don't think it's a particularly interesting inter-esting subject, do you? "Or lias it to do with the story you were asked to tell?" "More or less," said the Walrus. "My dear Harbor Seal, though you live along the coast of the Atlantic ocean and are nearer people than I am, you really haven't any brains. "Now I come from the Arctic regions, re-gions, north of Americu and Europe, and yet I believe I am more of a creature than you are." "In size, perhaps," said the Seal. "In other ways I don't know and I really don't care." "You prove to me," said the Walrus, Wal-rus, "that to be an interesting creature one must take an interest in other tilings. Nothing interests you and you are as dull as can be." "Some creatures might be insulted by such a speech," said the Seal, "but I do not care what you say." "Well, I must say that you are queer and also that folks who aren't satisfied with themselves are queer. "I've actually heard of people who ate food they did not like which would make them fat, and of others "You Are as Dull as Can Be." who went without food they greatly relished so they would become thin. "Now I insist upon having food I like practically all of the time. "That is why my family don't thrive In the zoo. "If they can't get us food we like, we object, and so they say it Is hard to keep a walrus In the zoo. "It's not their fault that they can't always get our kind of food, for they try hard enough. I know that. "But just the same we object and won't eat what we do not like. "We love clams I They are hard to get sometimes, the keeper, says, but I have been here for ages and I find the zoo pond they have given me a very pleasant place. "We would not go without clams to be thin or fat but we don't worry about such things as it is our nature to be fat, so we are fat I "That's simple." "I should say you were a big creature," said the Seal from his pond. "Certainly It would appear that you don't object to being fat. "But you are wise not to let It worry wor-ry you. That is very wise. "If you felt sad about being fat, you would have to feel so very sad because you're so very fat." "Xot bad. Seal, not bad for you 1 "Yes, I weigli more than four thousand thou-sand pounds," the Walrus admitted proudly. "Catch me trying to grow thin! I should say not! I am actually proud of my great and splendid weight, I am ! "And I hope that when people discuss dis-cuss me they will not only talk about the food I eat and how I demand just certain food, but that they will also talk about my weight. "After all, four thousand pounds in walrus is not to be sneezed at that is if anj one does sneeze actually at things they think beneath their notice Still U is an expression even If It doesn't mean much." |
