“I went to see if I could knock over a big palm
tree when the ground was soft from rain,” said
Umboo.
“And did you do it?” asked Mr. Stumptail.
“I did,” answered Umboo. “I
knocked over a big tree. It was easy, and here
is a branch of it for you, and it has some nuts on,”
and he handed his mother the one he had brought with
him all the way through the jungle.
“Oh, thank you!” said Mrs. Stumptail.
“You are a very good boy, Umboo, and I shall
like these nuts very much. But why did you stay
away so long?”
“I was lost,” answered the elephant chap.
“I could not find my way back after I knocked
over the tree. I met a rhinoceros, but he could
not tell me where you were. Then I met a kind
snake, and she showed me how to find you.”
“Well, don’t get lost again,” said
Umboo’s mother. “We are glad you
have come back, for, as Tusker says, we are about to
travel on, and we did not want to leave you behind.
So get ready now, we are going to a new part of the
jungle.”
A little later the herd started off, and Umboo walked
with some of the other young elephants, or calves,
as they are called. He told them the different
things that happened to him when he was lost in the
jungle.
On and on went the herd of elephants. They traveled
nearly all night, and the next day they stopped to
rest, for the sun was too hot for even such big, strong
beasts.
Umboo and the others were feeding in a quiet part
of the forest, when suddenly Tusker, who was always
on the watch, no matter whether he was eating or not,
gave a loud trumpet call.
“Ha! That means danger!” thought
Umboo, who, by this time knew the meaning of the different
calls. “I wonder what it can be?”
TO THE SALT SPRING
Quickly, as the other elephants in the jungle heard
the trumpet call of Tusker, they ran in from the different
trees, where they were pulling off leaves or stripping
bark, and gathered around the big leader. Tusker
stood with upraised trunk, his eyes flashing in the
sun.
“What is it?” asked Mr. Stumptail, and
some of the others. “What is the matter
now?”
“I smell danger,” cried Tusker. “I
smell the man-smell, and that always means danger
to us. There are hunters coming—either
black or white—and they will have guns
or bows and arrows to shoot us. We are near danger
and we must go far away. Come, elephants—away!”
Tusker raised his trunk again, and took a long breath
through it. He was smelling to see in which direction
the danger of the man-smell lay, and he would turn
aside from that.
“The smell comes from the South,” he said
to the other elephants. “We must march
to the North! Come!”
So he led the way through the jungle, Umboo and the
other elephants following. As yet only a few
of the others had smelled the danger-smell, and none
of them heard any noise made by the hunters, if they
were coming to shoot their guns or bows and arrows.
But they all knew that Tusker was a wise elephant,
and would lead them out of trouble. So they followed
him.
