Нет (None)Without a Tie
Montague Pilkinson was flying over the desert one day when the engine of his little plane suddenly broke down. It made that sort of noise as engines do when they start to go wrong. The plane then suddenly started to drop out of the sky and crashed into the sand. Now fortunately for Montague the sand was quite soft and he didn't injure himself. But the plane was a complete wreck. It was totally destroyed.
Anyway, Montague Pilkinson climbed out of his plane and looked around him. Oh, my goodness. There was nothing here but the sand and the sky. He started walking in a direction he thought might lead him to a town or a village. But quite honestly, he didn't know where he was going. The sun was hot. It was midday. It was, my goodness, it was 40 or 50 degrees Celsius.
And he had no water, no food. And water in the desert when it's that hot, is very, very important if you want to stay alive. Several hours went by, and Montague just walked and walked, trying to go in one direction. But he was by now very, very thirsty.
Then, suddenly, he thought he saw something in the distance, a shape moving. Could it be a mirage? But this shape was getting bigger because it was coming towards him. And then he could make it out. A man on a camel. And the man and the camel were coming towards him quite quickly.
Soon, the man came up to Montague on his camel. He was a very elegant looking man wearing flowing gowns . And he had a long beard. And curiously, he had a leather suitcase.
"Good day, my man. How are you? Perhaps you would like to buy a tie?" And he opened the suitcase and indeed, inside, there were a number of ties. Montague could hardly speak. He was so thirsty and his throat was so dry.
"Give me some water. Water. Please. I'm dying. I need water."
"Ah. I don't have any water. But I have some lovely fashionable ties. I have green ones and blue ones and, and pink ones and purple ones. I have striped ones and checked ones. Or I have ties with little polka dots on them. Would you like to buy a tie?"
Montaguе just couldn't understand. He couldn't believe his bad luck - he actually met somebody in the desert, and he didn't have any water with him. And what was worse, that he wanted to sell him a tie.