How The Giraffe Got His Long Neck
(1957)

LONG ago the Giraffe had a short neck like all other animals, but how this neck grew is what this story is about.

In those far off days Monkeys were very rare and the Giraffe wanted to see one to find out how they lived. The Giraffe knew that they lived in the trees, so he went to a forest and put his short little neck up in the branches in search of the monkeys. He still had his stubby neck up in the branches when a bough fell on his head.

He immediately looked up from where he was standing and he saw a face grinning at him.

"Come down!" said the Giraffe. "Let me look at you." The Monkey swung down a few feet and the Giraffe poked his head up in the branches as high as it would go.

"Those are my brothers," said the Monkey, pointing to a little group of Monkeys who were eating some nuts.

"So that is what Monkeys look like," thought the Giraffe to himself. "Oh well! I had better go back home."

The Giraffe tried to turn round and go back, but he found that his head was stuck in the branches. He looked around for the Monkeys but they had vanished. Although he tried wriggling and jumping, it was no good.

"I shall have to stay until someone comes," he said. But nobody came and so the Giraffe fed on the leaves and he stayed there year after year. Each year the tree grew a little pulling his neck a little longer, until it became as long as it is now.

Ten years later the Monkeys returned, and the same Monkey said, "What! Still here looking for me?"

"No!" said the Giraffe. "I have stayed here for ten years with my head stuck in these branches."

"I suppose I had better get it out for you," said the Monkey, and with that he stepped forward and pulled the branches apart so that the Giraffe could take his head out.

But his neck never returned to its old shape and to this day

Giraffes have long necks.

J. R. TATTERSALL, IA