ANIMAL FRIENDS 127 



be quite out of place feeding in the pastures where 

 our fine Jersey cows graze, while the cows could not 

 give a drop of milk or even live if they had only the 

 food the camel eats. 



While the camel is so well fitted for traveling and 

 carrying burdens in the land where he lives, the 

 elephants are quite as well suited to be burden- 

 bearers in the jungles of India and Africa. For they 

 are so tall and so large that they can push their way 

 through the thick mass of undergrowth, while their 

 feet are so broad that they do not sink into the soft, 

 wet earth. 



Elephants are very intelligent animals and can be 

 trained to do almost anything that their masters 

 attempt to teach them. The trunk of the elephant 

 is so made that with it he can lift large objects as 

 easily as we do with our two arms, while smaller 

 articles like pins can be picked up with the end of 

 the trunks as easily as with our fingers. 



Have you ever been to a circus and seen the re- 

 markable tricks the performing elephants can do? 

 Have you seen them sit at a table and eat, using 

 napkins and dishes as nicely, almost, as we do? 



While they have been trained to do many curious 

 things, it is by the real work they do that we judge 

 their intelligence. Elephants load and unload boats, 

 build walls, and help ship-builders by dragging huge 

 beams, for they can lift and drag with ease a beam 

 which twenty men could carry only with great diffi- 

 culty. Elephants are true workers, for after they 

 have been trained to do a certain task, they keep 

 right at it and work with a will. What is more, 



