16. The clever monkey聪明的猴子

Once upon a time, there was a clever monkey. He lived on abeautiful island, in an apple tree. One day, a crocodile swam to the island.‘I’m hungry,’ he said.

So the monkey threw a red apple to the crocodile. Thecrocodile munched and munched. The next day, the crocodile came back. ‘Please,may I have two apples?’ he asked. He ate one and gave one to his wife.

The crocodile went to see the monkey every day, to listen tohis tales and eat his apples. He wanted to be clever, just like the monkey. Thecrocodile’s wife had an idea. ‘Why don’t you eat his heart? Then you’ll beclever, just like him!’

The next day, he said to the monkey, ‘Come to my house!We’ll have lunch together, to thank you for the apples.’

But when he arrived, the crocodile snapped and said,‘Monkey! I want to eat your heart, so I can be as clever as you!’

The clever monkey thought quickly and said, ‘But... Ihaven’t got my heart here. It’s on the island, in the apple tree.’

They all went back to the island. ‘Wait here, and I will getmy heart,’ said the monkey. The monkey quickly climbed the tree and sat at thetop. ‘Oh, Crocodile. You are greedy. Of course you can’t have my heart. Andnow, you can’t have my apples!’ And the clever monkey laughed and laughed!