"Nobody, he told me, had ever crossed the desert, though hundreds had tried to do so, for everyone knew that it was in the very center of the oasis that the Wonderful Plant grew. He had never been able to find out why it was a Wonderful Plant; some said it had a flower that never died, the perfume of which would keep off trouble, others said that its leaves, crushed and eaten, would cure all ills, and yet others thought that if planted in an orchard it would ensure a wonderful fruit crop forever afterwards.
"However, nobody really knew, because there were great creatures that guarded the oasis and chased travelers. Giants they were, with dreadful twisted features, and sometimes they rode horrible twisted horses, and sometimes awful camels. Nobody had ever been killed by them, for all had been wise enough to return as quickly as possible when the giants approached.
"Sometimes indeed travelers had been attacked and chased by a huge toucan which lived on the oasis, and which knocked them down and battered them with its wings, but they had managed to escape with their lives. Nobody, he added, had tried to cross for a long time now; it was altogether too impossible.
"I was very much interested, especially in the toucan, and asked what manner of bird it was.
"'It is a terrible creature,' answered the inn-keeper, 'and the terror of the countryside. It is at least ten feet in length and has an enormous beak. It delights to steal our peaches, and in spite of all we can do ruins a good many crops every year. Scarecrows, be they ever so large, do not frighten it, and it will eat all the fruit from a dozen trees in an hour. It merely stands on the ground, shakes the tree with its beak until the fruit falls, and then gobbles it up.'
"I asked him what it lived on when there were no peaches to eat, but he did not know. It did not matter, he added gloomily, it did damage enough, and had just the day before cleaned off two of his very best trees.
"For the next few days I wandered about, going to the edge of the desert and wondering how I was going to get across the yellow sands over which no traveler had ever journeyed far.
"One day as I sat under a tree on a favorite stone meditating I noticed a large dark object coming through the air towards me. It was the toucan. I kept still and watched him. He stopped over a peach tree which grew at the bottom of an orchard not far off, and alighting on the ground walked over and deliberately shook the tree. Down fell the delicious fruit in a shower. Harder and harder he shook until not a peach that was at all ripe remained. Then he walked around and leisurely swallowed the peaches as a chicken swallows corn kernels.
"He had not finished before the farmer came running out with his wife and sons, all beating tin pans and shouting. The toucan let them approach quite close, and then made a sudden dive at them with his wings down, rose in the air right over their heads and flew away with a loud chuckling kind of noise that sounded like a laugh. The farmer and his family fell over each other in their fright, and when they had recovered their feet the bird was far away.
"It was all so funny that I had to laugh, and then I thought of a scheme for getting across the desert."