e regiment of Dicks on my back without making me
feel any better. I know just enough to be uncomfortable, and not enough
to go on in spite of it."

"We do not understand," said the bullocks.

"I know you don't. I'm not talking to you. You don't know what blood
is."

"We do," said the bullocks. "It is red stuff that soaks into the ground
and smells."

The troop-horse gave a kick and a bound and a snort.

"Don't talk of it," he said. "I can smell it now, just thinking of it.
It makes me want to run--when I haven't Dick on my back."

"But it is not here," said the camel and the bullocks. "Why are you so
stupid?"

"It's vile stuff," said Billy. "I don't want to run, but I don't want to
talk about it."

"There you are!" said Two Tails, waving his tail to explain.

"Surely. Yes, we have been here all night," said the bullocks.

Two Tails stamped his foot till the iron ring on it jingled. "Oh, I'm
not talking to you. You can't see inside your heads."

"No. We see out of our four eyes," said the bullocks. "We see straight
in front of us."

"If I could do that and nothing else, you wouldn't be needed to pull the
big guns at all. If I was like my captain--he can see things inside his
head before the firing begins, and he shakes all over, but he knows too
much to run away--if I was like him I could pull the guns. But if I were
as wise as all that I should never be here. I should be a king in the
forest, as I used to be, sleeping half the day and bathing when I liked.
I haven't had a good bath for a month."

"That's all very fine," said Billy. "But giving a thing a long name
doesn't make it any better."

"H'sh!" said the troop horse. "I think I understand what Two Tails
means."

"You'll understand better in a minute," said Two Tails angrily. "Now you
just explain to me why you don't like this!"

He began trumpeting furiously at the top of his trumpet.

"Stop that!" said Billy and the troop horse together, and I could
hear them stamp and shiver. An elephant's trumpeting is always nasty,
especially on a dark night.

"I shan't stop," said Two Tails. "Won't you explain that, please?
Hhrrmph! Rrrt! Rrrmph! Rrrhha!" Then he stopped suddenly, and I heard
a little whimper in the dark, and knew that Vixen had found me at last.
She knew as well as I did that if there is one thing in the world the
elephant is more afraid of than another it is a little barking dog. So
she stopped to bully Two Tails in his pickets, and y