“‘Yes, me then,’ says the whale.
“‘Well,’ ses the grasshopper, ‘there’s no doubt but vanity, ignorance, and ambition are three wonderful things, and you have them all.’
“‘Another word from you,’ ses the whale, ‘and I’ll put you where Napoleon put the oysters.’
“‘Neither you, nor Napoleon, nor the Kaiser himself and his hundred million men could do hurt or harm to me. You could have every soldier in the German army, the French army, and the Salvation Army looking for me, and I’d put the comether on them all.’
“‘I can’t stand this any longer,’ ses the whale, and then and there he hits the rock a whack of his tail, and when I went to look for the grasshopper, there he was sitting on the whale’s nose as happy and contented as if nothing had happened. And when he jumped back to the rock again, he says: ‘A little exercise when ’tis tempered with discretion never does any harm, but violent exertion is a very foolish thing if you value your health. But it is only people who have no sense, but think they have it all, who make such errors.’
“‘If I could only get a hold of you,’ ses the whale, ‘I’d knock some of the pride out of you.’
“‘That would be an ungentlemanly way of displaying your displeasure,’ ses the grasshopper.
“‘I’d scorn,’ ses he, ‘to use violent means with you, or do you physical injury of any kind. All you want is self control and a little education. You should know that quantity without quality isn’t as good as quality without quantity.’
“‘Sure, ’tis I’m the fool to be wasting my time listening to the likes of you,’ ses the whale. ‘If any of my own family saw me now, I’d never hear the end of it.’
“‘Indeed,’ ses the grasshopper, ‘no one belonging to me would ever recognise me ever again if they thought I was trying to make a whale behave himself. There would be some excuse for one of my attainments feeling proud. But as for you—!’