This wonderful story set in South Africa tells how Jamela gets carried away by the gorgeous material her mother buys to make a dress to wear at Thelma’ s wedding. Wrapping it around herself, she shows it off to all her friends. How beautiful it is and how beautiful she is in it. But parading the material around in front of her friends gets it damaged and Jamela feels terrible when she realises what she’ s done.
“Many, many years ago there was an emperor who was so terribly fond of beautiful new clothes that he spent all his money on his attire. He did not care about his soldiers, or attending the theater, or even going for a drive in the park, unless it was to show off his new clothes.”
“But by degrees, as she got more and more tired from crying, other thoughts drifted through her mind. Had she been rude? Had she been showing off? Inside she knew that she had, and she was ashamed, and though she was quite alone she turned red.”
Owl explained about the Necessary Dorsal Muscles. He had explained this to Pooh and Christopher Robin once before, and had been waiting ever since for a chance to do it again, because it is a thing which you can easily explain twice before anybody knows what you are talking about.