“Oh, we’ll never get up that,” said Uncle Wiggily.

“Yes, we will,” said the elephant, “I’ll make a hole through it with my tusks, and we can walk under it instead of climbing over.”

So with his long, sharp tusks he made a tunnel right through the mountain, and, though it was a bit darkish, he and the rabbit went through it as easily as a mouse can nibble a bit of cheese.

[Illustration]

Then, a little later they came to a place where there was a big river to cross, and there was no bridge.

“Oh, we can never get over that,” said Uncle Wiggily.

“Yes, we can,” said the elephant.

“Are you going to drink it up as you did the lake?” asked the rabbit.

“No,” said the elephant, “but I will make a bridge to go over the river.”  So he found a great big tree that the wind had blown down, and, taking this in his strong trunk, the elephant laid it across the river, and then he laid another tree and another, and pretty soon he had as good a bridge as one could wish, and he and Uncle Wiggily crossed over on it.

Well, they hadn’t gone on very far, before, all of a sudden the elephant fell down, and he was so heavy that he shook the ground just like when a locomotive choo-choo engine rushes past.

“Oh, whatever is the matter?” asked Uncle Wiggily.  “Did you hurt yourself?”

“No,” said the elephant, sad-like, “I am not hurt, but I am sick.  I guess I drank too much ice water, which is a bad thing to do in hot weather.  Oh, how ill I am!  You had better go for a doctor.”

Well, that poor elephant was so ill that he had to lie down on the ground, and he cried and groaned, and the big tears rolled down his trunk, and made quite a mud puddle on the earth.  For when an elephant is ill he is very ill, indeed, as there is so much of him.

“I’ll cover you with leaves so you won’t get sunburned,” said Uncle Wiggily, “and then I’ll hop off for a doctor.”  Well, it takes a great number of leaves to cover up an elephant, but finally the rabbit did it, and then away he started.

He looked everywhere for an elephant doctor, but he couldn’t seem to find any.  There were dog doctors and horse doctors and cat doctors and even doctors for boys and girls, but none for the elephant.

“Oh, what shall I do?” thought the rabbit.  “My poor, dear elephant may die.”

Just then he heard some one singing in the woods like this: 

    “Peanuts, they are good to eat,
    Mine are most especially neat,
    I am going to make them hot
    So that you will eat a lot.”

“Oh, are you an elephant doctor?” cried Uncle Wiggily.

“No, I am a hot-peanut-man,” said the voice, and then the peanut roaster began to whistle like a tea-kettle.  “But, perhaps I can cure a sick elephant,” said the peanut man.  So he and Uncle Wiggily hurried off through the woods to where the elephant was groaning, and, would you believe it? as soon as the big chap heard the whistle of the hot-peanut wagon and smelled the nuts roasting he got well all of a sudden and he ate a bushel of the nuts and Uncle Wiggily had some also.  So that’s how the elephant got well, and he and the rabbit traveled on the next day.