Animal Tales by Terry Jones

Author:Terry Jones [Jones, Terry]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-84365-272-4
Publisher: Pavilion Books Company Limited
Published: 2013-08-03T16:00:00+00:00

THE SKUNK & THE BEAR

A LITTLE SKUNK ONCE FELL IN LOVE WITH A BEAR. “You are the most handsome, the bravest and most charming creature in the whole forest,” she told him. “I love your rough fur coat, your rough voice, and your rough ways. But I see you are also a thoughtful bear, for I have often observed you sitting and thinking. I could imagine no greater happiness than to have my life bound up with yours.”

But Bear didn’t reply, for he was fast asleep. Perhaps Little Skunk would never have dared tell him all those things if he’d been awake.

Little Skunk would wait for Bear to come out of his cave, and she would watch him waking up and stretching. She loved the way he blinked in the sunlight. She loved the way he rose up on his great hind legs to sniff the breeze and the way he rubbed his snout with his strong fore paws. She loved the way his fur glistened and shook as he came down on all fours and loped off through the trees.

Her friends told Little Skunk to forget about Bear. “Bears and skunks can’t mix,” they said. “It’s ridiculous! What could you ever do for a bear? And what could a bear ever do for you?”

But it didn’t make any difference. Little Skunk still loved his great brown eyes and his pink tongue.

Then one day something terrible happened. Some men entered the forest and laid a trap for Bear.

Now Bear was a wary creature, and that morning when he stood up on his hind legs and sniffed the breeze, he could smell that men had been in the forest, so he was extra watchful. And that was how, peering around, he caught sight of Little Skunk as she gazed at him through the trees.

It so happens that bears are particularly disgusted by the dreadful scent that skunks produce, so as soon as Bear saw Little Skunk, he turned away and hurried off into the forest in the opposite direction.

Little Skunk saw how Bear had hurried to avoid her, and she felt ashamed.

“If only I weren’t a skunk!” she exclaimed to herself. “Our only gift is the gift of stinking. No wonder the other creatures of the forest look down on us. No wonder Bear shuns me!”

And Little Skunk felt a tear welling up in her eye, but she stamped her foot.

“We can none of us help what we are born as!” she said. “And since I’ve been born a skunk, it’s wrong to be ashamed of it. I’m going to tell Bear what I feel for him. Why shouldn’t I?”

And she started to run after Bear as fast as she could.

Now Bear heard Little Skunk running after him, and he said to himself: “Skunks don’t normally run after us bears. They are usually so afraid of us that, as soon as they see us, they immediately produce their dreadful stink, that makes us bears feel ill. What’s more if we get

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