“But why that other arrow?” asked Gessler of Tell, pointing to his pocket.
“To slay thee, tyrant, had I killed my boy,” answered Tell. Gessler ordered him to be seized, but in the confusion Tell took his son in his arms and escaped to his mountain home. Some time after this as Gessler was riding through the forest, Tell drew his bow and shot an arrow straight through the heart of the tyrant. In this way was Switzerland freed from tyranny.
_In which we find out what happened by asking questions._
At first elephants had short noses. Listen while I tell you how they came to have long noses, which we call trunks.
Once there was a little elephant who lived in Africa. He asked ever so many questions. He asked the ostrich why her feathers grew so long. He asked the giraffe what made his skin spotty. He asked the hippopotamus why her eyes were red. He asked about everything he saw.
One morning he asked: “What does the crocodile have for dinner?” Everybody said: “Hush! Don’t ask so many foolish questions!”
He came upon the Kolokolo bird sitting on a thorn bush and asked what the crocodile has for dinner. She told him to go to the Limpo river and find out. The next morning he went to the river.
He had never seen a crocodile, so when he saw one he did not know it. He first saw a big snake on a rock and said:
“Excuse me, but have you seen a crocodile around here?”
“What will you ask next?” asked the snake.
“Excuse me, but what does he have for dinner?” asked the elephant. The snake was angry and he shook his coils and thrust out his tongue at the elephant.
“Good-bye, snake,” he said and left. He came across something he thought was a log in the water, but it was a crocodile.
“Excuse me,” he said, “but have you seen a crocodile around here? What does he have for dinner?”
“Come here,” said the crocodile, “I will whisper it to you.”
The crocodile said to himself: “I will eat the little elephant to-day.”
He caught the elephant by the nose and began to pull hard.
“Let go!” said the elephant. “That hurts.”
The snake came from the rocks and said: “He will pull you into the water if you don’t pull hard.” He pulled hard and the crocodile pulled hard. The elephant’s nose began to stretch and stretched nearly five feet. “This is too much for me,” he said.