From the Neighborhood School writers’ corner in The Paper, March 1978. Original student wording, names and printed age information are preserved.
Once upon a time there was an ibex who lived in the Himalayas of Central Asia. His name was Xylophone, but all the other ibexes called him a dusky mangabey, because he monkeyed around so much.
Xylophone had horns 60 inches long, which were good for fighting. He liked to play with kudus and zebus, and once in a while with the cuscus and echidnas.
One day, Xylophone was going through the forest with his friend the Cuscus (whose name was Antidisestablishmentarianism), when they saw two ermines, each of whom had an upland plover in his mouth. Along came a giant gaur who was chasing a przhevalski’s horse. It made so much commotion that the ermines dropped the upland plovers, who then flew off.
Meanwhile, Xylophone the ibex charged in so that the przhevalski’s horse could get away. Xylophone then charged the gaur and gave him a big gash in his back right leg. The gaur stopped chasing the przhevalski’s horse. (And after a few days he recovered, too.)
Later that day, Xylo saw two dingos chasing a wombat and a rabbit bandicoot. A sloth bear jumped out of a tree with a gibbon on his back. They landed on the bigger dingo’s back. The smaller dingo couldn’t stop in time and ran into the whole pile, which started rolling down the hill and into the lake.
Meanwhile, up in the tree, there was a common marmoset laughing his head off.
The bear sloth, who was already very mad, climbed up the tree, grabbed the marmoset by the tail, and threw him in the lake. This just goes to show that sometimes he who laughs last shouldn’t have laughed at all.
Originally published in The Paper, March 1978.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Archival transcription note: The printed “przhevalski’s,” “dingos” and “bear sloth” are retained as student wording.
Original source: SD_Times1978_03.pdf, printed page(s) 5; PDF page(s) 5.
