THE JOLLY YOUNG ELEPHANT.
One day when the Show was passing through a village, one of the young trick-elephants heard a little boy laugh out suddenly. This elephant liked little boys; he had a roguish look himself and could take a joke, and never acted “mad” when some mischievous little visitor fed him an empty peanut shell.
THE YOUNG ELEPHANT’S DREAM.
THE YOUNG ELEPHANT’S DREAM.
THE YOUNG ELEPHANT’S DREAM.
Turning his mouse-colored head, the young elephant looked in at the open door of the house they were passing. He flapped his big ears at what he saw there, and laughed too.
That night when the show was over, and he stood in a row with the other elephants going to sleep, he thought again of what he saw in that open door, and laughed once more. “That must have been fun!” he said to himself. “It must be fun to be a little boy! That trick was funnier than any we circus elephants are taught to do. I wouldn’t mind being a little boy myself! I truly wouldn’t!”
And then the jolly young elephant went to sleep, and dreamed he could do the little boy’s trick—and really he never enjoyed a dream so much before in all his life.
George Dutton.