A Tale of the LongEars and the CurlyHorn

Back in the old days, this was, when the world was new, and old man Adam hadn’t gotten around to naming all of the animals.  The ones that were named surely did lord it over the ones that wasn't, who were simply known by their most distinctive characteristic.

Two of these animals was the Longears and the Curlyhorn.  The Longears had a pink nose and strong back legs, and the Curlyhorn had a thick coat of wool.  Both was as placid as another, larger animal, the recently named… cow.

This is the story of how the Longears and the Curlyhorn got their names.

As it happened, old man Adam was behind on his naming schedule.  He’d named Twistneck the “owl”, and Howler the “wolf”, and Long-thing-hanging-down-between-the-legs the… “elephant”.  But next on his list was Longears and Curlyhorn.

Try as he might, tho he wracked his brains for days and nights, pacing, and staring into space… he couldn’t come up with names.  And the cold breeze of winter was swift approaching, and Old Man Adam was gitten a mite chilly.

Of course, back then, animals could talk – in fact, you could hardly get ‘em to shut up sometimes – so Curlyhorn said “Why aaaaaare you cold, maaaaan Aaaaaadam?”

“I know!” Piped up Longears.  “Man Adam has no real fur.”

“That’s true,” Old Man Adam agreed.  “Perhaps you could give me your fur, um… hrm… Jumper?  No, that’s not a good name.”

“I am too small to give you my fur,” said Longear.  “But Curlyhorn has lots of fur!”

“Indeed he does!” said Old Man Adam.  And before Curlyhorn could protest with a “waaaaaait,” Old Man Adam had sharpened a stone and was advancing upon him.

“Nooooo!  Stooooop!” Curlyhair cried, and tried to run, but Old Man Adam was spry, and caught him up before long.

“Hold still” Old Man Adam insisted, struggling to keep his grip.  Eventually, Curlyhair relented, and lay down, and Old  Man Adam drew his sharpened stone across Curlyhorn’s back, scraping off the fur.  Shhhhhhhp!  Shhhhhhp!  The stone went.

Soon Old Man Adam had most of Curlyhorn’s full curly coat belted around him, and he looked down at Curlyhorn with an appraising eye.

“Curlyhorn,” declared Old Man Adam, “I do believe I have a name for you.  The sound that the stone made on your back, taking off the fur that you gave to me to wear.  Shhhhhp.   Shhhhhhp.   Sheep.”

“Thaaaaank you, Ooooold Maaaaaan Aaaaaadam,” Sheep shivered.

And then, Sheep became the one animal that helped to name another on, for Old Man Adam had worked hard shearing his coat.

“I’m hungry,” Old Man Adam complained.

Sheep raised on shivering hoof, pointed it at Longears and yelled:

“GRAAAABIT!”


The moral of the story?  When it comes to keeping humans warm, the Sheep is involved… but the Rabbit is COMMITED.

(c) 2012 Drew Nicholson