Once upon a time, animal language was spoken everywhere in the forest. Giraffe, because of his long neck, was King of the Animals. Taller than all the others, he would walk about with his head in the sky and hold long conversations with himself. All the other animals were very annoyed at this, because it disturbed their afternoon peace and quiet. So, one day they tried to think of ways to silence him. Leopard even went so far as to say, "You're not so wonderful, King Giraffe. There are lots of things you can't do that we other animals can!"
"Like what?" asked Giraffe.
"Well you can't run as fast as me, can you?" replied Leopard.
"We'll soon see about that, you impudent little cat! Let's have a race and see!" The other animals, who were certain that Leopard would win, went along to watch. Leopard and Giraffe started level, but soon Giraffe led by a neck. Then Leopard gained, overtook, and raced ahead. But then, Leopard ran into a tree, banged his head and fell to the ground. After winning the face, Giraffe grew even more vain. He walked around with his head in the air, praising himself and boasting how very much better he was than all the other animals. Soon the forest was full of Giraffe's vain chatter.
A few days later, the animals met again to decide what to do about Giraffe. But only Monkey had a plan. He collected gum from the rubber plant and climbed up with it into the trees. Spreading gum over every leaf, he swung from tree to tree, doing the same to each one in turn. Before very long, Giraffe came by and began nibbling at the leaves.
But with every mouthful he took, the gummy leaves stuck in his long neck. And no matter how much he swallowed and coughed and swallowed the leaves just would not move.
Giraffe shook his neck and drank all the water in the lake. But he just could not get rid of the sticky leaves. And when he opened his mouth to say what a wonderful beast he was, he found he could not speak. He was dumb!
All the animals thanked Monkey for silencing the boastful Giraffe. And after that they slept away every afternoon while Giraffe loped about, mouthing silent words into the topmost branches of the trees.
Story Time � 1984-1989 by Rubicon Press CC