Well, I cannot tell you everything that each one was going to do, but if you will go and get your Noah’s ark and take the animals out one by one, then you surely will think it out for yourself, for you have all the animals there.
And so they arranged how they would ornament the tree, and the next thing was to decide what presents should be hung on the tree or put beneath its boughs, for each one must have his present. Well, after much discussion in roars, and bellows, crows and croaks, lows and screams and bleats, and baas and grunts, and all the other sounds of bird and beast language, it was voted that each might choose the present he wished hung on the tree. The clerkly owl should call their names one by one, and each might declare his choice. So they began. The parrots and the macaws thought that they would like oranges and bananas and such things, which would look so pretty on the tree, too; and so they were arranged for. The robins and the cedar birds chose cherries; the partridges, partridge berries; the squirrels, red and gray and black, nuts and apples and pears. The monkeys said the popcorn strings would do for them, and the cats and dogs, remembering the Christmas gifts which the pug-dog and Persian cat had told about, asked for tiny mice made of cream cheese or chocolate. By and by it came the pig’s turn to tell his choice. “Grunt, grunt!” said the pig, “I want a nice pail of swill hung on the very lowest bough of all.”
“Ugh!” said the black leopard, so sleek and so clean.
“Faugh!” said the gazelle, with his dainty sense of smell.
“Neigh!” said the horse, so daintily groomed.
“What!” roared the lion, “what’s that you want?”
“A pail of swill,” grunted the pig. “Each one has chosen what he wants, and I have a right to choose what I want.”
“But,” roared the lion, “each one has chosen something beautiful to make the tree a joy to all.”
“Grunt, grunt,” said the pig. “The parrots and the macaws are going to have oranges and bananas, and the robins and the cedar birds red cherries, the partridges their berries, the squirrels nuts and apples and pears, the dog and the cat their cream and chocolate mice. They all have what they want to eat. Grunt, grunt,” said he; “I will have what I want to eat, too, and what I want is a pail of swill.”
Now, you see, it had been voted, as I told you, that each should choose what he wanted hung on the tree for him, and so the lion could not help himself. If the pig chose swill, swill he must have, and angrily he had to roar: “If the pig wants swill, a pail of swill he must have, hung on the lowest bough of the tree!”