Why the Donkey Has Long Ears

The Child's Story

One beautiful spring day — the sun shining, sending out warmth and light, the sky clear, and the birds singing in the trees — Noah's wife came out of her house and gazed at the green pastures adorned with olive trees. Then she shook her head in sorrow and regret, saying: “This is a strange business. I do not know what has come over my husband Noah. He must have gone mad. He is building a great ship on top of the hill. Whoever heard of any man building a ship on a hilltop? When he comes home I shall ask him the reason.”

When Noah returned, his wife asked him about it, and he laughed at her and said: “I have told you the reason, woman. An angel came to me and told me to do it.”

His wife asked him again: “Why?”

Noah answered her: “Because there is going to be a terrible flood that will drown all the wicked folk here, and I fear this means that nearly everyone here will drown — except you, and me, my dear, and our little donkey, and the cow, and the cat, and the dog, and our many other animals, for we shall be traveling by sea.”

At this the donkey said, “Not I,” and went on nibbling his food in the bright sunshine.

But soon there came a day when the sun did not shine. The rain began to pour down from a sky like black clouds. The little streams turned into angry, roaring rivers, and the waters spread over the fields until they destroyed the birds' nests up in the trees.

Noah said to his family: “Come, all of you, aboard the ship. I brought the animals into the hold of the vessel last night.”

At this a voice rang out, saying: “You did not.”

Noah turned around and saw the little donkey, his legs already sunk in the water. Noah shouted at him: “Go and join the animals in the ship.”

The donkey answered: “No. I should get seasick if I did.”

Noah said: “And you will drown if you don't. Go on now.”

But the donkey leaped and kicked and went running down the hill. Noah turned and called after him: “You will be sorry for this.” But the donkey stood in the rain and said nothing, and the water kept rising until it reached his knees, and then his shoulders. Then the wind began to blow and the great ship began to move. By now the water had reached the donkey's nose, and the donkey kept lifting his nose above the water so that it would not reach his mouth. And suddenly it became clear to him that a place on the ship's deck was better after all.

So he raised his head and called: “Noah. Noah. Noah.” But when he opened his mouth the water rushed in and he choked. He began to wonder what had happened to his beautiful voice, and why these harsh, despairing cries.

Noah stood at the rail of the great ship and heard the donkey calling him. Very slowly the ship made its way toward the drowning animal. But where was he? For Noah could see nothing but two small ears sticking up above the surface of the water. He leaned over the ship's side and grasped the two ears in his hands. Then he pulled and pulled — but the donkey's feet were stuck fast in the mud. As for the donkey's ears, they began to lengthen and stretch. Then his feet came free of the mud, and Noah tumbled flat on his back on the deck, his feet over his head and the donkey on top of him.

The donkey shook his long ears to shake the water off them, moaning: “Noah. Noah. Noah.”

Noah shook his head in silence and wished that the donkey's ears would grow small again as they had been — but that did not happen. And from that day to this the donkey can say only one word: “Noah. Noah. Noah.”