“There’s nothing like being tall! Look how wonderfully tall I am,” said Camel.

“Ha,” said Pig. “There’s nothing like being short. Look how delightfully short I am!”

“Ha,” said Camel. “If I can’t prove that being tall is better, you can have my hump.”

“Ha,” said Pig. “If I can’t prove that being short is better, you can have my snout.”

They decided to go for a walk together to see which was better. They came to a garden with a tall wall. The wall was much taller than Pig, but it wasn’t too tall for Camel, who could lean over the wall and get to the fruit on the trees. Camel ate the trees’ fruit until he was quite full.

“See,” said Camel. “Being tall is much better than being short.”

They continued on their way until they came to another garden. It also had a tall wall and a short gate. However, this garden’s wall was much taller than Camel. The gate was too short for Camel. But Pig was short enough to fit through the gate and got into the garden quite easily. Pig enjoyed eating his fill of the garden’s vegetables. He came back out when he was done to join his friend, Camel.

“See,” Pig said to Camel. “Being short is much better than being tall.”

The friends looked at each other and thought about what they learned. Camel saw that being tall was only helpful some of the time. Pig saw that being short was helpful sometimes, and not helpful at other times. They decided they were both right some of the time, so Pig kept his snout and Camel kept his hump.

They made up a rhyme to tell what they learned: “Tall is good where tall would do; of short again, ‘tis also true!”