“He has eaten it up!” cried Nell, overjoyed.
“I should say so!” answered Stasch, laughingly.
The elephant now put out his trunk toward them, as if asking for more, and then could be heard his “Hrrumff!”
A second fruit now disappeared like the first, followed by a third, fourth—tenth; then in rapid succession he ate acacia-pods, big bundles of grass, and various kinds of leaves. Nell, would not permit any one to replace her, and when at last her little hands became tired, she still pushed more food down to him with her feet. The elephant continued eating, and it was only now and then, between mouthfuls, that he raised his trunk and gave forth a thundering “Hrrumff,” to denote that he wanted more, and, as Nell felt certain, to show his gratitude.
At last Kali and Mea got tired of this work, which they had performed very faithfully, and they silently hoped that “Bwana Kubwa” would fatten the elephant and kill him later. At last “Bwana Kubwa” told them to stop, for the sun had now sunk quite low and it was time to begin the construction of the hedge. Luckily it was not very difficult, for two sides of the three-cornered strips of land were inaccessible, so that only the third one needed to be fenced in, and plenty of acacias with their terrible thorns grew nearby.
Nell did not move an inch from the gorge, and crouching on its edge, with her legs tightly crossed, she informed Stasch, who was some distance away, what the elephant was doing—and her thin little voice continually rang out:
“He is feeling around with his trunk!” or “He is moving his ears. He has enormous ears!”
Then at last: “Stasch! Stasch! He is getting up! Oh!”
Stasch approached quickly and took Nell by the hand. In truth, the elephant had really gotten up, and only now could the children see his enormous size. They had occasionally seen large elephants being taken in ships through the Suez Canal on their way from India to Europe, but not one of them could compare with this colossus in size, for he really looked like a large slate-colored, four-footed rock. He differed from those they had seen in having enormous tusks five feet or more long, and, as Nell had already said, fabulously large ears. His front legs were very long, but comparatively thin, which was probably due to his having fasted so many days.