The Elephant's child

THE ELEPHANT'S CHILD

IN the High and Far-Off Times the Elephant, O Best Beloved, had no

trunk. He had only a blackish, bulgy nose, as big as a boot, that he could

wriggle about from side to side; but he couldn't pick up things with it.

But there was one Elephant--a new Elephant--an Elephant's Child--who

was full of 'satiable curtiosity, and that means he asked ever so many

questions. And he lived in Africa, and he filled all Africa with his

'satiable curtiosities. He asked his tall aunt, the Ostrich, why her tail-

feathers grew just so, and his tall aunt the Ostrich spanked him with her

hard, hard claw. He asked his tall uncle, the Giraffe, what made his skin

spotty, and his tall uncle, the Giraffe, spanked him with his hard, hard

hoof. And still he was full of 'satiable curtiosity! He asked his broad aunt,

the Hippopotamus, why her eyes were red, and his broad aunt, the

Hippopotamus, spanked him with her broad, broad hoof; and he asked

his hairy uncle, the Baboon, why melons tasted just so, and his hairy

uncle, the Baboon, spanked him with his hairy, hairy paw. And still he

was full of 'satiable curtiosity! He asked questions about everything that

he saw, or heard, or felt, or smelt, or touched, and all his uncles and his

aunts spanked him. And still he was full of 'satiable curtiosity!

One fine morning in the middle of the Precession of the Equinoxes this

'satiable Elephant's Child asked a new fine question that he had never

asked before. He asked, 'What does the Crocodile have for dinner?' Then

everybody said, 'Hush!' in a loud and dretful tone, and they spanked him

immediately and directly, without stopping, for a long time.

By and by, when that was finished, he came upon Kolokolo Bird sitting

in the middle of a wait-a-bit thorn-bush, and he said, 'My father has

spanked me, and my mother has spanked me; all my aunts and uncles

have spanked me for my 'satiable curtiosity; and still I want to know

what the Crocodile has for dinner!'

Then Kolokolo Bird said, with a mournful cry, 'Go to the banks of the

great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever-trees,

and find out.'

That very next morning, when there was nothing left of the Equinoxes,

because the Precession had preceded according to precedent, this

'satiable Elephant's Child took a hundred pounds of bananas (the little

short red kind), and a hundred pounds of sugar-cane (the long purple

kind), and seventeen melons (the greeny-crackly kind), and said to all

his dear families, 'Goodbye. I am going to the great grey-green, greasy

Limpopo River, all set about with fever-trees, to find out what the

Crocodile has for dinner.' And they all spanked him once more for luck,

though he asked them most politely to stop.

Then he went away, a little warm, but not at all astonished, eating

melons, and throwing the rind about, because he could not pick it up.

He went from Graham's Town to Kimberley, and from Kimberley to

Khama's Country, and from Khama's Country he went east by north,

eating melons all the time, till at last he came to the banks of the great

grey-green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever-trees,

precisely as Kolokolo Bird had said.

Now you must know and understand, O Best Beloved, that till that very

week, and day, and hour, and minute, this 'satiable Elephant's Child had

never seen a Crocodile, and did not know what one was like. It was all

his 'satiable curtiosity.

The first thing that he found was a Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake

curled round a rock.

''Scuse me,' said the Elephant's Child most politely, 'but have you seen

such a thing as a Crocodile in these promiscuous parts?'

'Have I seen a Crocodile?' said the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock- Snake, in

a voice of dretful scorn. 'What will you ask me next?'

''Scuse me,' said the Elephant's Child, 'but could you kindly tell me what

he has for dinner?'

Then the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake uncoiled himself very

quickly from the rock, and spanked the Elephant's Child with his

scalesome, flailsome tail.

'That is odd,' said the Elephant's Child, 'because my father and my

mother, and my uncle and my aunt, not to mention my other aunt, the

Hippopotamus, and my other uncle, the Baboon, have all spanked me for

my 'satiable curtiosity--and I suppose this is the same thing.

So he said good-bye very politely to the Bi-Coloured-Python- Rock-

Snake, and helped to coil him up on the rock again, and went on, a little

warm, but not at all astonished, eating melons, and throwing the rind

about, because he could not pick it up, till he trod on what he thought

was a log of wood at the very edge of the great grey-green, greasy

Limpopo River, all set about with fever-trees.

But it was really the Crocodile, O Best Beloved, and the Crocodile

winked one eye--like this!

''Scuse me,' said the Elephant's Child most politely, 'but do you happen

to have seen a Crocodile in these promiscuous parts?'

Then the Crocodile winked the other eye, and lifted half his tail out of

the mud; and the Elephant's Child stepped back most politely, because

he did not wish to be spanked again.

'Come hither, Little One,' said the Crocodile. 'Why do you ask such

things?'

''Scuse me,' said the Elephant's Child most politely, 'but my father has

spanked me, my mother has spanked me, not to mention my tall aunt,

the Ostrich, and my tall uncle, the Giraffe, who can kick ever so hard, as

well as my broad aunt, the Hippopotamus, and my hairy uncle, the

Baboon, and including the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake, with the

scalesome, flailsome tail, just up the bank, who spanks harder than any

of them; and so, if it's quite all the same to you, I don't want to be

spanked any more.'

'Come hither, Little One,' said the Crocodile, 'for I am the Crocodile,'

and he wept crocodile-tears to show it was quite true.

Then the Elephant's Child grew all breathless, and panted, and kneeled

down on the bank and said, 'You are the very person I have been looking

for all these long days. Will you please tell me what you have for

dinner?'

'Come hither, Little One,' said the Crocodile, 'and I'll whisper.'

Then the Elephant's Child put his head down close to the Crocodile's

musky, tusky mouth, and the Crocodile caught him by his little nose,

which up to that very week, day, hour, and minute, had been no bigger

than a boot, though much more useful.

'I think, said the Crocodile--and he said it between his teeth, like this--'I

think to-day I will begin with Elephant's Child!'

At this, O Best Beloved, the Elephant's Child was much annoyed, and he

said, speaking through his nose, like this, 'Led go! You are hurtig be!'

THIS is the Elephant's Child having his nose pulled by the Crocodile.

He is much surprised and astonished and hurt, and he is talking through

his nose and saying. 'Led go! You are hurtig be!' He is pulling very hard,

and so is the Crocodile: but the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake is

hurrying through the water to help the Elephant's Child. All that black

stuff is the banks of the great grey- green greasy Limpopo River (but I

am not allowed to paint these pictures), and the bottly-tree with the

twisty roots and the eight leaves is one of the fever-trees that grow there.

Underneath the truly picture are shadows of African animals walking

into an African ark. There are two lions, two ostriches, two oxen, two

camels, two sheep, and two other things that look like rats, but I think

they are rock-rabbits. They don't mean anything. I put them in because I

thought they looked pretty. They would look very fine if I were allowed

to paint them.

Then the Bi- Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake scuffled down from the bank

and said, 'My young friend, if you do not now, immediately and

instantly, pull as hard as ever you can, it is my opinion that your

acquaintance in the large- pattern leather ulster' (and by this he meant the

Crocodile) 'will jerk you into yonder limpid stream before you can say

Jack Robinson.'

This is the way Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snakes always talk.

Then the Elephant's Child sat back on his little haunches, and pulled, and

pulled, and pulled, and his nose began to stretch. And the Crocodile

floundered into the water, making it all creamy with great sweeps of his

tail, and he pulled, and pulled, and pulled.

And the Elephant's Child's nose kept on stretching; and the Elephant's

Child spread all his little four legs and pulled, and pulled, and pulled,

and his nose kept on stretching; and the Crocodile threshed his tail like

an oar, and he pulled, and pulled, and pulled, and at each pull the

Elephant's Child's nose grew longer and longer--and it hurt him hijjus!

Then the Elephant's Child felt his legs slipping, and he said through his

nose, which was now nearly five feet long, 'This is too butch for be!'

Then the Bi-Coloured- Python-Rock-Snake came down from the bank,

and knotted himself in a double-clove- hitch round the Elephant's Child's

hind legs, and said, 'Rash and inexperienced traveller, we will now

seriously devote ourselves to a little high tension, because if we do not,

it is my impression that yonder self- propelling man-of-war with the

armour- plated upper deck' (and by this, O Best Beloved, he meant the

Crocodile), 'will permanently vitiate your future career.