1 How the Elephant Got His Trunk

Animal Stories Retold from the classic originals

CHAPTER 1 How the Elephant Got His Trunk Long ago, in far-off times, the Elephant had no trunk. He had only a blackish, bulging nose. It was big as a boot, and he could wriggle it from side to side. But he could not pick up things with it. There was one Elephant, a new Elephant, named the Elephant's Child. He was full of insatiable curiosity, which means he asked ever so many questions. He lived in Africa. He bothered all of Africa with his questions. He asked his tall aunt, the Ostrich, why

her tail feathers grew just so. Ostrich bopped him with her hard, hard claw. He asked his tall uncle, the Giraffe, what made his skin so spotty. Giraffe bopped him with his hard, hard hoof. Still the Elephant's Child was curious. He asked his broad aunt, the Hippopotamus, why her eyes were red. Hippopotamus bopped him with her broad, broad hoof. He asked his hairy uncle, the Baboon, why melons tasted just so. Baboon bopped him with his hairy, hairy paw. And still Elephant's Child was curious. He asked questions about everything he saw, or heard, or felt, or smelled, or touched. All of his uncles and his aunts bopped him. And still he was full of 'satiable curiosity! One fine morning, in the middle of a great parade, the Elephant's Child thought of a brand-new question.

"What does the Crocodile have for dinner?" he asked. "Hush!" everyone hissed in a dreadful tone. Then they bopped him and bopped him for a good long time until he was very warm and greatly surprised. The Elephant's Child ran off crying into the jungle. He came upon a Kolokolo Bird sitting in the middle of a thorn bush. "Why are you crying?" asked the Kolokolo Bird. "Everyone has bopped me for my 'satiable curiosity. But I still want to know what the Crocodile has for dinner!" "Go to the banks of the great graygreen, greasy Limpopo River. You'll find out there," the Kolokolo Bird told him. That next day, the Elephant's Child took a hundred pounds of bananas (the short red kind), and a hundred pounds of sugarcane

(the long purple kind), and seventeen melons (the green crackly kind). He carried them in a sack. "Good-bye, dear family. I am going to the great graygreen, greasy Limpopo River. I must find out what the Crocodile has for dinner," he said. They all bopped him once more, for luck, even though he most politely asked them to stop. The Elephant's Child went from town to town and county to county. All the way, he ate melons and left the rinds (because he could not pick them up). He traveled for many days and many nights. At last he came to the great graygreen, greasy Limpopo River. The first thing he found was a two- colored Python-Rock-Snake curled around a rock. "Excuse me," said the Elephant's Child. "Have you seen such a thing as a Crocodile?

And do you know what he has for dinner?" The two-colored Python-Rock-Snake uncoiled himself from the rock. He bopped the Elephant's Child with his scalesome, flailsome tail. "Why does everyone bop me for my 'satiable curiosity?" the Elephant's Child wondered. Now he was more determined than ever to find out what the Crocodile eats for dinner. So the Elephant's Child went right up to the great graygreen, greasy Limpopo River and sat down on a log. But it was not a log. It was really the Crocodile. The Elephant's Child did not know this. And the Crocodile winked one eye at the Elephant's Child. "Did you happen to see a Crocodile near the great graygreen, greasy Limpopo River?" asked the Elephant's Child most politely.