Charley's Wonderful Journeys. 



255 



to whether they or the men were the mas- very intelligent, of course; men are intelli- 

 ters, so he kept his mouth shut and his ears gent beyond question. We can send them 

 open. up to cut branches of the fig tree far out of 

 The chief Elephant observing his silence our reach; they have a knack, too, of load- 

 attempted to range up alongside of him for ing a day's supply on our backs so that we 

 conversation, but was checked by his rider, can carry it without its falling off; they plow 

 who misunderstood his intentions. " You the ground, too, and raise grain, and grind 



"yes, that's nice," said he, as CHARLEY USED THE STIFF SCRUBBING BRUSH VIGORORSLY. 



stupid brute," roared the Elephant, "can't 

 you keep still ? I've a good mind to pull 

 you down and trample you under foot for 

 digging that nasty iron into my raw spot." 



The rider sat stupidly stolid, for he didn't 

 understand a word of what was said. 



" If we could only make them understand 

 us,'' said the Elephant to Charley, "we 

 could do something with them. They are 



it, and bake the flour into cakes; and they 

 know how to draw water, and to wash and 

 scrub us. In fact, without man we could 

 never have reached our present state of 

 civilization. But they try one's temper 

 dreadfully sometimes, and if it wasn't that 

 we can't do without them, I should some- 

 times be tempted to run amuck, trample 

 the whole village under foot, and go back 



