HUMPHRY

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 508, 10 November 1928, Page 29

HUMPHRY

There was once a hyena who could not laugh. This was strange, because it is almost always the first thing that a baby hyena learns to do. True, they don’t always know what they are laughing about, and sometimes they laugh in the wrong place—you see m some ways they are very like us—and then again, when they start, they never know when to stop. But this hyena had never laughed in his life. His name was Humphry and he was the despair of the cheerful parents, who were considered the jolllest pair in the jungle. “Humphry has no sense of humour,” . they would say sadly. “He never lauarhs.” Riddles, stories, jokes, jungle gossip —they were always wasted on him. There never was such a dull child. But there came a day when Humphry did laugh, and you shall hear about it. The occasion was Humphry’s third birthday. Mr. and Mrs. Hyena had invited their friends to the birthday party. Chilperic the Cheetah was there, a.nd old Bundi the Badger, and Mr. and Mrs. Musk Rat, and a great many of Humphry’s uncles and aunts and cousins besides. It was a very merry party, you may be sure. After tea Mr. Hyena fell to asking riddles, and as, of course, no one could guess the answers—that being the way of all good riddles—Mr. Hyena had to tell them, and each was greeted with loud explosions of laughter. “Why does a lion live in a desert?” he asked at length. “He doesn’t,” everyone answered; “he lives in forests and jungles.” “Mine didn’t,” said Mr. Hyena, “because he found the desert soft to lie Everyone burst out laughing, with the exception of Humphry, who sat staring into space, without even the glimmer of a smile. But in the darkest hour of the night, when all the guests had gone, the walls of the cave suddenly resounded with peal after peal of unearthly laughter, that roused father and mother hyena from their sleep. They were astonished to find, that this noise came from the corner where Humphry slept. More astonished still were, they when they rubbed their eyes, and saw their son sitting back on his haunches, laughing as if he would never stop. So prolonged and so penetrating was the laughter of Humphry that animals fast asleep in their caves on the farthest boundaries on the jungle heard it, and crept to the mouth of their dens to listen. Mr. and Mrs. Hyena, now wide awake, looked at Humphry, and then they looked at each other, and Mrs. Hyena said: “Goodness gracious, child, what on earth are you laughing like that for? You will wake the whole jungle.” “Oh, I’m just thinking of that riddle,” answered Humphry—“ ‘why does a lion live in a desert?’” Here he burst out laughing again. “ ‘lt’s because its soft to sit down on,’ ” he ended, and fell back helplessly in his corner.