nters all
around them.

"Father, come, delay not! make mother rise at once. This night my sleep
has been broken as a warning to me that mischief is brewing. Let us
ascend the big tree near by and observe."

"Child, you are right," said his father, after listening a moment; "the
demons of the wilderness are gathered against the village, for human
enemies make no such stir as this. We will ascend the great tree at
once."

Thereupon he drew his wife out.

Kibatti wriggled himself through the burrow under the milkweed hedge
into the banana-grove, and having gained its deep shadows, raced for the
great tree, closely followed by his parents. A large vine hung pendant,
and up this vine Kibatti climbed, his mother after him, the old man
last. Not a moment too soon, for just then the trumpet-note of the King
Elephant was heard, and afterwards such a concert of noises that neither
Kibatti nor his aged father had ever heard the like before. In the
starlight they saw the huge forms of all kinds of furious animals pass
and repass below them; but clinging closely to the shelter of the giant
limbs of the tree, they, from their safe perch, witnessed the dreadful
ending of their friends and relatives.

When he fully realised the catastrophe and its completeness, Kibatti
suggested to his parents that they should ascend to the very highest
fork, lest they should be observed in the morning, and on climbing up
they found a snug hiding-place far above, hidden all round by the thick,
fleshy leaves of the tree. There they remained quiet until morning,
when the boy's restless curiosity became so strong that he resolved to
gratify it. Grasping close a great limb of the tree, he descended as
far as the lower fork and looked down. He saw all the huts smashed, and
the bones of his tribe white and gleaming, scattered about. The fences
were all levelled, but the elephants, under their leader, were
re-setting the poles round about. The lions were pacing watchfully
around, the rhinoceroses and buffaloes were herded separately, gazing
upon the elephants, the leopards were lying down under the trees in
scattered groups, the hyenas were crunching bones, for these last never
know when they have eaten enough.

Kibatti kept his post all day. By night the poles fenced the village
round about as before, and in the dusk he saw the gathering together of
all the creatures in a circle round the King Elephant, to hear his
rumbling voice deliveri