Part 7 (1/2)
Umboo wanted to grow up to be a big, strong smart elephant. He wanted to be like Tusker, the leader of the herd, and he thought if he were as tall, and strong as that mighty fellow he would have no trouble at all in uprooting the tree.
”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 b.u.t.ton them, and tie your hair ribbons.
As he stood thinking of what best to do, Umboo sc.r.a.ped 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 tusks, 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 pried them up, as he used to pry 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 s.h.i.+vered 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.
”h.e.l.lo!” 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.
Umboo, splas.h.i.+ng in a mud puddle, walked away from where he had been standing near his mother.
”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.