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THE ANT AND THE ELEPHANT*** |
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"He (the elephant)
was enormously pleased with himself after all the good deeds he had done
that day. 'Everyone has his troubles.' He chuckled. 'Everyone but big
me. I'll never get into a fix where I need help. That is one thing for
sure.' The elephant didn't suspect..."
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PRELIMINARY SKETCHES FOR ROUGH DRAFT OF THE ANT AND
THE ELEPHANT |
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This story gave Bill Peet the opportunity to include many
kinds of African animals which he loved to draw."In my book 'The
Ant and the Elephant' the story begins with an ant crawling up a blade
of grass for a view of the river. A sudden whiff of breeze sends
him flying off into the water and to save himself he climbs out onto a snag
- but he is stranded in the middle of the swiftly flowing river. Elephant
finally saves him. The way this fable works the ant must finally rescue
the elephant. A problem which stopped me for years, and I went on to other
stories before I came back to it." |
His first ending had the ant
stinging the elephant who then jumped out of the ravine. Bill was not
happy with this ending and continued to look for another.
Other books which include Bill's favorite animal, elephants, include Ella,
Encore for Eleanor and Hubert's
Hair-Raising Adventure. |
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| Bill Peet once started work on a story about a lion and a mouse, and then realized he was just re-telling an Aesop's Fable. Not wanting to copy another's story, he immediately scrapped the idea. The Ant and the Elephant story is very similar to an Aesop's Fable called The Ant and the Dove. Either my father did not remember that he had read this story, or he may have come up with the idea on his own. Bill Peet was a voracious reader, and he did have a copy of Aesop's fables on his book shelf. I'm sure he couldn't remember every short story he had read over the years. |
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Copyright 1972 by William Peet, Houghton
Mifflin Co. Boston |
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