One day, a little fish was out swimming in the river with her mother.The water was clear and warm. The little fish wanted to swim faster and go farther. So, she swam on and on till she reached the riverbank. She looked, and there, growing on the bank, she saw a large bean stalk and on the bean stalk, a big, fat bean. The little fish thought that she had never seen anything so funny. “Hullo there, Fatso!” she called to the bean. “Hullo, Midge!” the bean called back.
The little fish felt very hurt when she was called in that manner. She burst into tears and hurried off to complain to her mother about it. “Perhaps you hurt the bean’s feelings yourself in some way,” said the mother fish.” “Oh, no, mother dear, I didn’t!” “Well, let’s swim back to the bank again and I’ll ask the bean what made him say such a thing.” “Tell me, Mr. Bean, what made you hurt my little daughter’s feelings? Why did you call her Midge?” “She only got as good as she gave. She called me Fatso, so I called her Midge in return!”
