"There must be some way of doing it," said Umboo to himself as he looked up at the palm nuts on top of the tree, and then he glanced at his mother who was watching him. Of course Mrs. Stumptail herself could easily have pulled the tree for Umboo, as it was not very large, but she did not want to do this. Just as your mother wants you to learn to lace your own shoes, or button them, and tie your hair ribbons.
As he stood thinking of what best to do, Umboo scraped with his feet in the dirt around the roots of the tree. Soon he uncovered some of the roots. They were not a kind he liked to eat, but, as he saw the roots laid bare, a new idea came into the head of the elephant boy.
"Ha! I know what I can do!" he said. "I can make the roots loose with my long tusks4, and then it will be easy to push the tree over with my head. The roots won't hold it up any more!"
"That's it!" exclaimed his mother. "I was wondering how long it would take you to think of that. And it is better that you should think of it for yourself than that I should tell you. Now you will never forget. So loosen the dirt around the roots, Umboo, and then see what happens."
Kneeling down, Umboo put his tusks under the roots and pried5 them up, as he used to pry6 the sweet ones up which he liked to eat. In a little while he had broken many of the big roots. Then he stood up, backed away from the tree, and rushed at it to strike it with his big head which was like a battering-ram.
Once, twice, three times Umboo hit the tree. It shivered and shook, and then, because the roots no longer held it up, over it went with a crash.
"Hurray!" cried Umboo, or what meant the same thing in elephant talk.
"Now I can get the palm nuts!"
"Yes," said his mother. "You have learned something else."
With the tree lying flat on the ground, it was easy for Umboo to reach the palm nuts with his trunk. He pulled them off and ate them, first, though, giving his mother some. For elephants, and other animals, know how to be kind and polite, though of course, they are not so good at it as are you boys and girls.
As Umboo and his mother were eating the palm nuts, along came Keedah.
"Hello!" cried the other elephant boy. "How did you get the palm tree down, Mrs. Stumptail?"
"I did it," said Umboo.
"You?" cried Keedah. "No! You are not strong enough for that!"
"No, I wasn't strong enough to knock this tree over with my head, or pull it down with my trunk, until I loosened the dirt at the roots," said Umboo. "After that it was easy."
"Well, you are getting to be like us bigger boys," said Keedah. "May I have some of the palm nuts, Umboo?"
"Yes," was the answer, for Umboo felt a little proud at what he had done, and, like a real person, he wanted others to know it.
"Did you ever knock down a palm tree?" asked Umboo of Keedah.
"Often," was the answer. "I learned to dig at the roots just as you did. But when it rains you don't have to do that."
"Why not?" Umboo wanted to know.
"Because the rain water makes the dirt soft around the roots, and we don't have to dig it loose with our tusks. Wait until some day when it rains, and you'll see how easy it is to knock over bigger trees than this."
And Umboo found that this was so. About a week after that it rained hard, and to the hot, tired and dusty elephants in the jungle the cooling showers were a delight. The rain soaked into the ground, until it was wet and soft, like a sponge.
"Where are you going?" asked Mrs. Stumptail.
"I am going to see if I can do as Keedah said he could do, and knock over a tree without digging at the roots," answered the elephant boy. "The ground is rain-soaked now, and soft."
"Very well," spoke9 his mother. "You may try it. But don't go too far away. The herd may move on through the jungle, and then you would be lost."
"I'll be careful," promised Umboo.
Off started the elephant boy, splashing through the mud and water. He did not need to wear rubber boots, or take an umbrella. In fact he would not have known what to do with either, though once, in a circus, I saw an elephant with an umbrella. But then I saw one with a hand organ, too, and you'd never see that in the jungle.
But Umboo's big feet were made for walking in mud and water, and his thick skin, though bugs10 could bite through it at times, did not let any rain leak through to wet him. There was plenty on the outside, however, just as there is outside your rubber coat.
"I'll just go off by myself and knock a great big tree over with my head," thought Umboo. "Then the other elephants will see what I can do. I wonder if it will be easy, on account of the ground being soft from the rain?"
On and on through the jungle wandered Umboo. He was big enough to travel by himself now, though of course he did not want to leave his mother, nor the herd, which was like home to him. He was one of a big family of elephants, some being his sisters, his brothers or his cousins.
All around him, through the forest, Umboo could hear the other elephants crashing about in the wet. They were looking for good things to eat, and none of them went very far away from the others. They wanted to be near where they could hear Tusker sound his trumpet11 call of danger, if he had to do so.
But Umboo being young, and perhaps rather foolish, thought he could go off as far as he pleased into the jungle.
"I can find my way back again, after I have knocked over a big tree," he thought to himself. "It will be easy."
The elephant boy saw several trees with bunches of palm nuts on them, but none was large enough for him. He wanted to pick out an extra large one; not as big, of course, as his mother or father or Tusker could have butted12 over, but still one bigger than the other trees he had been used to knocking down.
At last, when he had tramped on quite a distance through the mud and water of the jungle, Umboo saw before him a fine, large palm tree. Growing in the top, so far up that he could not reach any except the very lowest, and littlest, ones, were a number of clusters of palm nuts.
"Ah! That's the tree I'll knock down!" thought Umboo.
He went up to it, and looked at the ground around the roots. It was soft and spongy as he stepped on it, and water oozed13 out.
"This ought to be easy," said the elephant to himself. "Very easy!"
He put his head against the trunk of the tree and pushed. At first the tree only swayed a little, as though blown by the wind. Then the elephant boy, who was quite strong now, pushed harder and harder. Then he drew back his head and struck the palm tree a hard blow.
And then, all of a sudden, over it went, the roots pulling loose from the soft, wet ground. Over the tree went, falling with a crash!
"Ah ha!" laughed Umboo. "That's the way to do it! Keedah was right! It is very easy to knock over a tree when the ground is soft and muddy. Now for some good nuts to eat."
With his trunk Umboo pulled the palm nuts off the tree and stuffed them into his mouth. An elephant's trunk is to him what your hands are to you children.
After he had eaten as many of the nuts as he wanted (and you may be sure that was quite a number, for elephants have big appetites) Umboo tore off a large branch, with nuts clinging to it and started off through the jungle with it.
"I'll take this back to the herd with me," he thought. "My mother or father may like it. And I can show it to Keedah. He can tell by the size of this branch that the tree I knocked over must be a big one. Then I'll bring him here and show him the tree. I'm almost as big and strong as he is."
So thinking, Umboo went on through the forest. Each tree, leaf and vine was dripping water, for it was still raining hard. Steam arose from the ground, for the earth was hot and the water was warm, as it always is in the jungle.
Perhaps it was this steam, which was like a fog, rising all around him, that puzzled Umboo. And most certainly he was puzzled, for, when he had been walking quite a distance, he suddenly stopped and listened.
"This is strange," he said to himself. "I don't hear any of the other elephants. And I ought to be back with the herd now."
He listened more carefully, flapping his ears which were, by this time, about as large as a baby's bath tub. They were still growing. To and fro Umboo moved his ears, listening first one way and then the other. He could hear the patter of the rain, and the chatter14 of a monkey now and then, also the fluttering of the big jungle birds, with, every little while, the rustle15 of a snake. But the elephant boy could not hear the noise made by the other elephants.
"I guess I haven't walked far enough," he said to himself. "I must go along through the jungle some more. But I did not think I came as far as this when I was looking for a tree to knock over."
So, taking a tighter hold of the branch of palm nuts in his trunk, off started Umboo again, splashing through the muddy puddles16. He looked this way and that, and he listened every now and then, stopping to do this, for he made so much noise himself, as he hurried along, that he could hear nothing else.
"Well, this is certainly funny!" thought Umboo, when he had stopped and listened about ten times. "I can't hear any other elephants at all. I wonder if they could have gone away and left me?"
Then he knew, that, though the other animals might have gone away and left him, his father and mother would not do this.
"And," thought Umboo, "if there had been any danger from hunters and their guns, Tusker would have sounded his call, and I would have heard that. I guess I haven't gone back far enough."
Then he hurried on again, but, after awhile, when he had listened and could hear nothing of the herd of elephants, and could not see them through the trees, Umboo began to be afraid.
"I guess I must be lost!" he said. "That's it! My mother said it might happen to me, and it has. I'm lost!"
And so he was! Poor Umboo was lost in the jungle, and the rain was coming down harder than ever!
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1
herd
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| n.兽群，牧群；vt.使集中，把…赶在一起 | |
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2
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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3
uprooting
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| n.倒根，挖除伐根v.把（某物）连根拔起( uproot的现在分词 )；根除；赶走；把…赶出家园 | |
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4
tusks
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| n.（象等动物的）长牙( tusk的名词复数 )；獠牙；尖形物；尖头 | |
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5
pried
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| v.打听，刺探（他人的私事）( pry的过去式和过去分词 )；撬开 | |
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6
pry
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| vi.窥(刺)探，打听；vt.撬动(开，起) | |
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7
puddle
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| n.(雨)水坑，泥潭 | |
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8
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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9
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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10
bugs
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| adj.疯狂的，发疯的n.窃听器( bug的名词复数 )；病菌；虫子；[计算机]（制作软件程序所产生的意料不到的）错误 | |
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11
trumpet
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| n.喇叭，喇叭声；v.吹喇叭，吹嘘 | |
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12
butted
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| 对接的 | |
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13
oozed
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| v.（浓液等）慢慢地冒出，渗出( ooze的过去式和过去分词 )；使（液体）缓缓流出；（浓液）渗出，慢慢流出 | |
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14
chatter
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| vi.／n.喋喋不休；短促尖叫；(牙齿)打战 | |
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15
rustle
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| v.沙沙作响；偷盗(牛、马等)；n.沙沙声声 | |
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16
puddles
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| n.水坑， （尤指道路上的）雨水坑( puddle的名词复数 ) | |
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