Every year the herds of elephants in India come down
to eat salt, for they need it to keep them well, as
horses and cows do on the farm. And the elephant
hunters know this too, and so they get ready to capture
the wild elephants when they come down each season
to get the salt.
The herd was not going so fast now. Tusker felt
that they were well away from the hunters, and, though
seeing the fence at first scared him a little, he
now thought everything was all right.
“We will have good times when we get to the
salt springs,” said Tusker to the other elephants.
“There we can rest, and the hunters will not
shoot us.”
“Yes, I am hungry for some salt,” said
Mrs. Stumptail, for she had been to the springs before,
and so had many of the older animals.
Along marched Tusker at the head of the herd, and
after him came the others. They, too, were hungry
for salt, and Umboo was quite anxious to taste some,
for he had had very little, as yet. But he liked
it very much, and was anxious for more.
But an hour or so later, when traveling along toward
where the salt springs bubbled up in the jungle, Tusker
suddenly stopped again. Once more he gave the
danger signal through his trunk.
“What is the matter now?” asked Mr. Stumptail.
“More trouble?”
“Another fence!” cried the old elephant.
“The jungle is full of strong fences! We
can not go this way, either!”
“What can we do?” asked Umboo. “There
is a fence behind us, and now one in front of us.
What can we do?”
“Let me think a minute,” said Tusker.
“I fear there is danger on both sides of us.”
IN A TRAP
All the other elephants waited while Tusker stood
there, swaying to and fro in the jungle thinking.
Some people say animals do not think, but I believe
they do. At least it is thinking to them, though
it may not seem so to us.
“Well, are we going to stay here all day?”
asked a young elephant, who was crowded in among the
others at the back of the herd. “I want
to get to some place where I can have palm nuts to
eat. I am hungry. Let’s go on!”
“Be quiet!” called Umboo’s father
to this elephant. “Don’t you see
that Tusker is trying to think, and find the best way
out of danger for us. Wait a bit.”
So the elephants waited, and finally Tusker with a
shake of his big ears, said:
“I never knew anything like this before.
Always when we have come to the salt springs the way
has been clear. There have been no man-made fences
to stop us. But, since they are here it must be
that it is not meant for us to go where the fences
are. Very well. I know how to get to the
salt springs without going near these things across
our paths. We can go straight ahead, between
the two fences!”
And that was just what the hunters, who had put up
the fences in the jungle wanted. They wanted
the elephants to go along between them, for, at the
places where the fences came to an end, was a strong
stockade, or trap, to catch the wild elephants.
