The Elephant's Child (1 of 4)

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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?'

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