“Run along,” said the old white camel. “Anything’s better than having you hemming and hawing like this, but please don’t loiter on the way.”
The old leader gave a terrific yawn at this and stretched himself out as if for a long sweet sleep, and without waiting another minute the youngest camel started off in a gallop across the hot stretches of sand. Faster and faster he went, stumbling over his own feet, gasping and choking for breath, and still he seemed to come no nearer to her.
“Mother!” he cried out. “Mother! Wait, I’m coming.”
At the sound of his voice, she turned her head over her shoulder and looked back at him and smiled.
But just as it seemed he must reach her side at last, a sudden burst of bright-feathered little birds descended between them and set about his eyes and ears like a swarm of bees. They were all chattering wildly, and try as he would he could no longer see to pass them.
“Oh, let me go! Please let me go,” he pleaded, but his words were drowned out by the whistling and scolding of the scores and scores of birds.
Now that he had stopped, they settled at once on his head and on his hump, while others flew furiously before his eyes. If he turned in desperation to the right or to the left, they pursued him, chattering, while still others swung like tiny sharp-clawed monkeys on his tail. He spun around, but they were everywhere, increasing in numbers and in fury with every instant that passed. Finally one single brilliant bird poised herself before him on the air and spoke these words:—
“Listen to us once again. You have lost a great deal of your conceit since we last met, and you have almost entirely ceased to lie. Moreover, you have learned to be polite to everyone you meet.”
“Yes, yes, yes!” trilled all the birds in chorus.
“You are much braver now, as well,” the single bird’s voice went on, “and much humbler than you ever were before.”