The Elephant's Child (2 of 4)

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THE ELEPHANT'S CHILD (CONT'D)

''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!'

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.

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