It appears that the original source is here http://ftp.arl.mil/~mike/ping.html (see "Customer Comments"), and the Amazon reviewer reproduced it without attribution.

It's too bad this didn't make it into the 4.4BSD Programmer's Supplementary Documents. :/

Ah... so what is the plot in The Story of Ping?

The Story of Ping is a classic children's story from the 30s. When people had a very different attitude about, for instance, corporal punishment.

The summary is that Ping is a duck from a family where the last duck home every night gets beaten. Ping is going to be the last duck one night, so decides to run away. He has a series of scary adventures, learns that home is best of all, and is happy to go home the next day, even with the beatings.

"Beaten" exaggerates what happens, which according to the book is a single "spank" by a smiling man holding what appears to be a slender reed.

Yeah, I've been reading it to the kids recently.

I misread "beaten" as "eaten" the first time, and was shocked at the "different attitude about corporal punishment", then even further shocked when I read that he was happy to go home, until I got to the final word...

Yeah, what you describe sounds more like The Story of Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Which, though terrifying, could also be pretty funny in the right hands. (Terry Gilliam)

In addition the illustrations (in the original older editions at least) would probably not be considered politically correct these days. They show Chinese people as the typical 1930's "Chinaman" depiction which many might find slightly insulting today.