“It is not every animal,” answered the Leopard, as he came out dressed up in his white bathing suit, “who has the good fortune to be born with a beautiful white skin. Many is the time I have tried to change these polka dots for a plain checked suit, but somehow I could never do it. I may be funny but I never looked so queer as do two very mean animals who are lying on this beach all dressed up in ugly, striped bathing suits.”
Then Zebra and Tiger became angry. They got up and took off their bathing suits and threw them at tailor bird. Then all the birds and the animals laughed so hard that they had to put their hands to their sides. Hyena laughed until he rolled over and over on the beach.
“Hyena,” roared Tiger, “you are always laughing at nothing. What is the matter with you?”
Hyena pointed with his paw. Tiger and Zebra looked at themselves and found that their skins were all striped. The color had come out of the new bathing suits and the sun had dried it into their hair. Tiger and Zebra felt so ashamed that they ran away. Ever since that day the beasts in the jungle have always said Striped Tiger and Striped Zebra, and it was not until the Spotted Leopard told me this story, that I knew that those two animals were once as white as the Polar Bear.
THE END