“But, Nell, there is one thing that you did not think of. We shall not stay here forever; we must ride on further. I do not say immediately—on the contrary. This place is very convenient and healthy, so I have decided to remain here one week—perhaps two—for you and I and in fact all of us need a good rest. Well, all right! As long as we stay here we will feed the elephant, although this is an enormous task for us all. He is imprisoned, and we can not take him with us. But how will this end? We shall go away and he will stay here and starve once more, until he succumbs. And of course we will grieve even more than we would now.”
Nell felt very sad, and for a time sat there silently, apparently not knowing what answer to make to these very sensible remarks, but soon she raised her head, and pushing aside the lock of hair which always fell over her forehead into her eyes, she turned her eyes confidently toward the boy.
“I know,” she said, “that you could get him out of the gorge if you only wanted to.”
But she put out a finger, touched Stasch’s hand, and repeated:
The small and clever little lady knew quite well that the boy would be flattered by her confidence in him and that from now on he would earnestly consider how to release the elephant.
The night passed quietly, for although there was a bank of clouds toward the south, the morning was clear.
Following Stasch’s orders, Kali and Mea busied themselves after breakfast gathering the fruit of the breadfruit tree, acacia pods, fresh leaves, grass and roots of all kinds of eatables for the elephant, and laid them down on the edge of the gorge. As Nell wanted very much to feed her new friend herself, Stasch cut from a young, wide-branched melon-tree a kind of pitchfork, so that she could more easily throw the provisions into the bottom of the ravine. The elephant had been trumpeting since early morning, for he was evidently hungry, and when he saw on the edge of the cliff the same little white creature who fed him the day before, he greeted her by making a joyful sound and immediately stretched out his trunk toward her. In the morning sunshine the children thought he looked even taller than the day before. Although he was very thin, he seemed somewhat stronger now, and his tiny eyes looked almost merrily at Nell. She even insisted that his forelegs had grown stouter over night, and she made such haste to throw the food down to him that Stasch was obliged to restrain her, for she finally became greatly overheated and he had to take her place. Both children were having a very good time, and they were especially amused at the queer faces the elephant made. At first the animal ate everything indiscriminately that fell at his feet, but when his hunger was somewhat appeased he was more discriminating. When plants were given to him that he did not like, he pushed them away with his forefeet and tossed them in the air with his trunk, as though trying to say: “These delicacies I reserve for you up there to eat.” Finally, after the beast had satisfied his hunger and quenched his thirst, he began to slap his huge ears with great satisfaction.