The Buffoon and the Countryman

英语自学网

The Buffoon and the Countryman
        At a country fair there was a Buffoon who made all the people
        laugh by imitating the cries of various animals.
        He finished off
        by squeaking so like a pig that the spectators thought that he had
        a porker concealed about him.
        But a Countryman who stood by said:
        "Call that a pig s squeak!
        Nothing like it.
        You give me till
        tomorrow and I will show you what it's like."
        The audience
        laughed, but next day, sure enough, the Countryman appeared on the
        stage, and putting his head down squealed so hideously that the
        spectators hissed and threw stones at him to make him stop.
        "You
        fools!" he cried, "see what you have been hissing," and held up a
        little pig whose ear he had been pinching to make him utter the
        squeals.
        Men often applaud an imitation and hiss the real thing.